Green World
by Aurona
Summary: First came Ellone. Then came the ripples. Is it better to manipulate time yourself, or to let it manipulate you? The roles of initiator and victim become inexplicably mixed: a double edged sword can just as easily turn on its wielder. Immediate sequel.
1. Is it over?

**Green World** (n.)- A place, theoretical or tangible, where the main characters can be together in an ideal setting.

FITHOS LUSEC WECOS VINOSEC

FITHOS

_I'll be here…_

LUSEC

… _Why?_

WECOS

_I'll be 'waiting'…_

VINOSEC

… _For what?_

FITHOS

_I'll be 'waiting'… for you… so…_

LUSEC

… _If you come here, you'll find me._

WECOS

_I promise._

VINOSEC

* * *

"Please return," Matron told him as she wrung her hands. She seemed very stressed by his presence. "You do not belong here."

The little boy came running back to her, looking disappointed. "I can't find Sis. Am I… all alone?" His head swung upward and his striking bluish-gray eyes connected with Squall's. "Who's he?"

"Nobody," Matron responded quickly. "You don't need to know. The only Squall permitted here is you."

She shifted her attentions to the brown-haired teenager in front of her. Her tone of voice expressed genuine worry. "Do you know where to go back to? Do you know how? Will you be all right by yourself?"

He gave the SeeD salute.

… _I'll be all right, Matron. Because I'm not alone… I'm not alone… If I call out, they will answer._

But where were they? He was in never-ending darkness without a soul in sight. Before he could calm himself down, he began to panic. "_Where is everyone?_ Rinoa! _Where are you?_ Zell! Selphie! Quistis! Irvine!

"Rinoa!" She would not, or perhaps could not, answer him. There was nobody left.

_Am I… alone?_

_Rinoa? I want to hear your voice._

_Which way… do I go?_

_I can't make it back… alone._

"Rinoa?"

_Am I… all alone again?_

_Where… am I?_

Squall was lost in Time Compression, suddenly marooned on an empty wasteland, and worst of all, he was alone.

He started to walk. One step became two, then three, and then four. With every step he took, his resolve weakened. He would die where he stood. The ebb and flow of time would never let him go.

Just as he thought this, the edge of the rock he was standing on materialized before him. All of a sudden, he was on a tiny island, not an infinite plane. _I'll never make it out of here. I'll never see any of them again._

He was still walking, but his feet felt so, so heavy. He collapsed onto the ground as his vision started fading out.

He and Rinoa were standing in the flower field behind the orphanage. The sky was a sublime orange, and the colors shimmered on her smiling face.

Her face. What was happening to it? Her features blurred as she turned to face him.

His mind went off, cycling through all of his dearest memories. Rinoa all alone on the dance floor, spotting him for the first time. As she turned her head, he saw that her face was unnaturally shadowed.

Quistis blasting holes into the robotic spider, gunning it down in a narrow-eyed rage. Selphie tumbling down a cliff and dusting herself off with a carefree smile on her face. Irvine winking as he cocked his gun. Zell grinning as he gave Squall a thumbs-up.

Rinoa started walking towards him as he leaned against the ballroom wall. Then Rinoa was floating helplessly in space, watching the chain around her neck rise up in front of her. His ring—Griever's ring—was there beside her mother's wedding ring. But she didn't smile at the sight. She only gasped soundlessly as the glass dome of her suit shattered, rending the breath away from her body.

A single tear rolled down his face, but he didn't feel it on his cheek. Had that last 'memory' even happened? If he were in the right frame of mind to think and reason, he would have said that it couldn't have been. He had jumped out into that cold infinity just to rescue her. Now, however, he wasn't sure if it even mattered anymore. If he could never hear her voice and hold her in his arms, then she had might as well be dead. And if she was dead, then so was he.

He could see her again, walking towards her. Her face was still just beyond his reach. And just when he thought that he would never see her face again, she slid away from him into nothing. There was nobody there where she once stood, no smiling, mischievous face to greet him.

… _Gone?_

He faintly realized his environment morphing around him. He was now cloaked in pure white light.

A soft, downy feather, small and white, formed out of the emptiness. It alighted upon the ground just as he did.

_This is it… It's over…_

* * *

Cid and Edea entered the room through the solid oak doors behind them. Everyone jumped into a line and saluted, leaving Rinoa looking a little left out.

"Enough of the formalities, all right?" Cid asked, smiling slightly. "At ease, all of you."

Pleasantly surprised, everyone relaxed and reassumed their personalities.

"So like, what's this about?" Irvine blurted out.

Cid and Edea both glanced momentarily at Squall. Why was he not surprised that the conversation ended up on him? He nodded, aware of where this was inevitably headed.

"Squall," Cid began somewhat hesitantly, "I think you know what I'm talking about when I say that there's something you might want to share with your friends. If you'd rather not, though, I understand, but they deserve to know what… happened."

Squall sighed heavily at the very thought of even attempting to explain the unexplainable. He allowed himself a long look around the room to buy some time: everyone was watching him expectantly, but they were also trying—and failing—to conceal that expectation. He could see on Rinoa's face that she also felt guilty for being curious. That was probably how the others felt: curious, but ashamed of feeling so. Did it even occur to them that he had opted out of discussing it for a reason?

It wasn't that he hadn't given any thought to it: on the contrary, it had been at the back of his mind ever since he no longer had to reach out to try to find Rinoa. The only thing Squall knew for sure was that thanks to his little time-travelling stint, he had sealed the coffin on his own fate, and none of it had been his decision. More than ever before, he felt that all-too-familiar feeling that his life was out of his hands. He was powerless.

"… I'm sorry."

"Do you remember what I told you the last time we spoke?" Edea asked.

He could almost hear her words echoing in his head, haunting him: _"As of this very minute, my bitter story has ended. I now understand there is an end, no matter how painful it may be. Therefore... Squall? You must fight to the end! Even though it may bring tragedy to others!"_

At the time, he didn't fully understand how she had been involved. But now that the end had indeed passed, he understood.

"Yes."

"Good. Then you understand that there are no apologies. You did what you had to do, so I don't want you to have any regrets." She scrutinized him with an almost fierce gaze. "Do you understand? It _had _to be done."

None of that mattered, however, when compared to what he had seen after that. To see her die out there… it was just too much to take. He knew that no matter how much he wished he could change it, he would have to watch her die again. It didn't matter if it took five or fifty years for it to happen. When it did, he was sure that his sadness would destroy him.

"Squall? Are you okay?" Rinoa's voice snapped him out of his thoughts, and her worried frown brought him back to the present time and place. Why was it so hard for him to look her in the face?

"…"

Zell waved a hand to call attention to him. "Yo Squall, just a reminder, but, we weren't there, and it'd be… well, nice of you to fill us in, 'cuz we don't know what the heck you're talking about."

"I'm sure he's tired of thinking about it," Edea answered. "Is it okay if I tell?"

Squall nodded, not caring what they knew. There was no point in suffering through it alone.

* * *

The little boy ran into the darkened space and put his hands on his hips defiantly. "I'm gonna find Sis!"

"Squall!" Edea yelled out.

… _Matron._

He cast his gaze around as his surroundings lightened; they were at the orphanage. The rough, gray stone walls and the green vines snaking and coiling across those walls caught his attention. The blending of colors was very soothing to the eye.

"Excuse me. Have you seen a little boy?"

He turned his head and found himself face to face with Edea once more. But this Edea seemed to be many years younger—as had he.

"You don't have to worry," he assured her. "The boy won't go anywhere."

She smiled in visible relief. "I think so, too. Poor thing…."

Behind him, he heard the ominous sound of energy gathering in space. Out of the purple ethereal of the smoke, Ultimecia appeared. Her eyes smoldered darkly; a bizarre mist was cast over their surface, showing the clouding of the spirit inside. He quickly edged in between Edea and Ultimecia and drew his gunblade on the latter.

"… You're _alive_?"

Edea peered over Squall's shoulder at Ultimecia, calmly assessing the situation. "… The sorceress?"

Squall's vision widened to take in everything in front of him. "Yes, Matron," he answered tensely. "We had defeated her… Matron, stand back."

Edea spoke gently. "It's okay," she assured him. "There's no more need to fight. That sorceress is just looking for someone to pass her powers on to. In order to die in peace, a sorceress must be free of all her powers. I know... for I am one, too." Her posture did not waver through any possible doubts she may have borne inside. "I shall take over that sorceress' powers. I do not want one of the children to become one." She moved decisively, coming closer and closer to Ultimecia.

Ultimecia, similarly, took a heavy step herself, although directed towards no one and nothing in particular. "I… can't… disappear yet," she groaned laboriously. Squall sheathed his gunblade warily. "Matron!" he barked in warning.

Edea took this gap in Squall's attention to close the gap between her and Ultimecia, who fell to her knees. In a rush of purple streaks flying through the air around them, an intangible ghost of energy passed quickly from Ultimecia's chest to Edea's. She hung her head, exhausted at the effort of completing her own death, and disintegrated into nothing.

At the moment of contact, Edea lost control of her body and fell to the ground. Squall hurried over and knelt down beside her.

"Is this... the end?" she asked.

He nodded. "... Most likely."

She lifted her head to look at him once again. Their eyes locked at the moment their gazes overlapped. "You called me Matron," she breathed almost fearfully. "Who... _are _you?"

"A SeeD. A SeeD from Balamb Garden." He wasn't thinking; the words were simply flowing out of his mouth unhindered.

Her brow furrowed in confusion. "SeeD? Garden?"

"Both Garden and SeeD were your ideas," he continued. "Garden trains SeeDs. SeeDs are trained to defeat the sorceress."

She rose to her feet. "What are you saying?" Her eyes widened almost imperceptibly. "You're... that boy from the future?"

Squall, suddenly realizing just what was happening, took a step back in shock. "... Matron," he mumbled, freezing where he stood. _Is this… what I think it is?_

* * *

Edea nodded. "Cid and I had a long talk over this, and after that we watched over you very, very carefully, yet we kept our distance so you would not suspect anything. Our plan was to let time run its course unaltered, but use our influence when we felt it necessary."

Squall hadn't expected this. All this time, he had been right. He was a dog on a leash with Cid and Matron taking him wherever they pleased, and they had just admitted it right to his face!

Cid spoke up, interrupting Squall's thoughts once again. "We had an approximate age determined. You drew your gunblade in front of Edea, so we knew that you would learn to use it sooner or later. Another interesting thing she took note of was a scar running diagonally down your face.

"So we used your information on SeeD to start up Balamb Garden. Later on, we sent you there, along with Seifer, and Quistis a few years later. Zell was adopted, but he joined eventually as well.

"Just a few months ago at the SeeD Test mission briefing, I noticed you in the crowd, Squall, and I saw that scar on your face, just as Edea described it. You were within the set age range, but that scar was the icing on the cake. Things were going to start happening, to everybody, but especially to you. By this time, Edea had left under Ultimecia's influence, but my hands were tied. I had an entire Garden to head, NORG most certainly wouldn't let me leave my post to go chasing after her, and I could no longer afford to let you out of my sight."

He scratched his head and paused to collect his thoughts. Nobody made a sound.

"It was hard, you know, watching you from afar, not being able to step in and let you know what was going to happen. In retrospect, maybe I was too hard on you. I know the responsibility was very stressful for you, and I'm sorry for putting you through all of that. Just keep in mind that you were the only one with the natural skills to be the Commander. You had to lead us in order for you to be the one to defeat Ultimecia, return to the orphanage, and set everything in motion again."

Cid looked positively weary with age. The wrinkles in his face seemed at their most prominent, and his eyes looked the saddest that Squall had ever seen.

Squall didn't know whether he felt outraged for having his life ruled over by fate for the past twelve years, or relieved that it was all in the past and he was finally free from those chains that had tied him down for so long. For the first time, his life was in his hands and nobody else's. _But what do I really feel? Why don't I feel any different now that I realize this?_

He had known it ever since he left the orphanage. He knew what he had done. At the time, he was shocked. Now, he didn't care anymore. It was over, and he was back with the only people he had ever depended upon.

There was much fidgeting from his comrades. Every one of them looked slightly guilty, as though they were intruding on Squall's privacy merely by hearing his life story being told. Every few seconds, somebody would tear his or her gaze from the floor to steal a glance at him, searching for a reaction, one shred of emotion. He was sure that he was keeping a poker face on, but Rinoa seemed to be the one displaying his feelings on hers.

"Squall?" This time it was Selphie who spoke up, albeit very timidly. "Before you just run outta here, could you just tell us how you met up with Rinoa before the rest of us found you two? We… don't really understand what happened… why did you pass out like that? How'd we end up in the back yard of the orphanage again?"

Quistis added her two cents right away. "Remember how Laguna told us that Time Compression would be conducive to our thoughts and feelings? Well, maybe since the four of us were trying to find you two—" she pointed at Squall and Rinoa "—and also get back to the right time, we all ended up at the orphanage because… you two were there, and we were all there together before."

_I don't feel angry for being used… because none of it matters anymore, _Squall thought. _We're all here together, and that's what's important right now._

"I really don't know. I'm not the one who would." Squall turned to face Rinoa. She smiled that quiet, knowing smile of hers because she understood: they had ended up where they had been because she and Squall had kept their promise.

* * *

_Time… Places… Who I wanna be with…_

Rinoa walked on through the grass. The sky was darkening overhead, already of a deep blue shade, interrupted only by clouds.

_I wanna go there! Where Squall and I promised._

"Squall! Let's go home! Where are you?"

A barren, rocky plain appeared beneath her feet. She wandered along in no particular direction. Where was he? Her hand found its way up to the ring hanging about her neck. As soon as she touched it, she felt a quick burst of hope inside her. He was out there somewhere. All she needed to do was find him.

Rinoa could faintly discern a dark figure on the ground. She walked a little faster towards him. She knew it was Squall. It had to be.

Was he asleep? She cupped his face in her hands, but he didn't respond. His skin felt cold to the touch. She recoiled in fear. She refused to believe it.

A shower of pink flower petals flew in over her head before the ground spewed forth greenery and flowers of the brilliance only seen in pictures. She hugged his still body as if it were her life and soul.

They were 'here'. And it was beautiful. No, not beautiful. It was perfect.


	2. Nightfall

_Maybe I shouldn't have told them. Maybe…. No. They're my friends. They understand._

He was just so glad that it was finally over. There was nothing left to say, nothing left to do. But why, then, was he still restless? He sighed heavily and sat up on the edge of his bed.

A knock at the door jerked his head to the side.

"Hey, it's me," Rinoa called out.

He turned his head away from the door and stared at the floor. "Come in."

The door slid open and she stepped inside quietly. He continued to stare pensively at the floor.

For a few moments, they said nothing while their thoughts hung heavy in the air. Squall finally slid over to make a spot for Rinoa, glancing over at her out of the corner of his eye as he did so.

She spoke up tentatively. "… Are you okay? You don't seem to be sleeping much these days." She fell onto her back and spread her arms wide upon the bedspread. He turned to make eye contact with her. "I mean," she continued, "you used to nap all the time, but…" she trailed off.

"I have a lot on my mind," he answered simply.

She sat up abruptly and slid her hands over he knees, rocking back and forth.

"I think…" he began.

"Hm?"

"I think I would've died if you hadn't found me."

"You think so?" she murmured quietly.

"I tried thinking about you, but every time I did, I had a harder and harder time imagining your face." He felt her hands grasping his forearm but didn't look down, instead letting his eyes wander all around the room. "I forgot about everybody else and just focused on _you_, but I couldn't even do _that_."

She sat up and rested her head on his shoulder. "If you're afraid that deep down inside, we won't be able to stay together, then tell me," she urged him. "Please, just tell me. What's on your mind?"

Could that really be what his failing meant? Why else wasn't he able to find her?

"It didn't matter in the end," she said finally, "because _I _found _you_."

_So that's the answer. _She's _the one keeping us together._ He stood up on impulse. _But _I _can't._

She stood up, too. "Squall?"

He shook his head. "You should go get some sleep."

"Come on! Just say something! _One _sentence!" she begged. "I know you're clamping up because you're afraid, so just tell me what you're so afraid of."

He paused for a moment to gather his thoughts.

"We're never going back there, right?"

"Oh. That's… an interesting thought," she murmured. "Is it even possible to go back into Time Compression?"

"It's definitely possible."

"Hm," she laughed. "That place… it was so cool to just _be _there, you know?"

he moved to the side and adjusted the blinds on his window so the moonlight flooded through and clashed with the overhead lights. "So cool, but so dangerous, too."

She only laughed some more. "I guess the nicest things in life are just that. You have to be willing to lose something important to you if you want to have a chance at gaining something else."

* * *

"Okay, so who should we worry about first?" Cid asked wearily. 

"Ellone's with Laguna," Edea began, "so she should be all right for now—"

"Wait, wait, wait. Esthar. The—monsters from the Lunar Cry—" he mumbled half-confusedly. "Are they within the city limits with all those monsters roaming around free?"

Edea clutched at her head. "Just calm down! I—I… actually don't know where they are, either, but I'm _sure _they're sticking together, at the very least."

Cid took a long, deep breath. "So they initiated Time Compression, and then they just _left_?"

He took a few moments to think things over.

"What about Seifer? Where's he? What did Fujin and Raijin do after they stopped following his orders?"

"Would you _please _stop asking me? Squall and the others told us everything they know, and it's up to us to investigate everything else."

He sighed and closed his eyes momentarily. "So they haven't responded yet? They didn't find _anybody_?"

At first, she didn't reply. "Everyone except Seifer."

"Did they know where _he _went?"

* * *

For the whole eternity of the elevator ride, he couldn't think. He couldn't focus. Perhaps he couldn't even do anything to help, either. 

At the top, the elevator spat him and his party out onto the level. As they ran through the corridors, he silently read through the mental list of instructions.

"Sir, what if they haven't stayed put? What if they already left the Pandora?" his burgundy-haired female comrade inquired.

"Then we let them go and assume they're safe with each other. With Seifer and… Fujin and Raijin, though…."

"There are no guarantees. Got it."

"Ellone!" he burst out as he caught sight of her and quickened his pace. She was sitting down with her back against the wall and her knees pulled up to her chest. Why? Was there anything wrong with her?

A middle-aged man in a light blue shirt stepped in and extended his hand. "Pleased to meet you guys. I'm Laguna."

"Ah, yes," he replied quickly. Laguna shook hands with all of them in turn, wearing a bright smile all the while. "Will you be taking care of Ellone for the time being?"

At this suggestion, Laguna scratched his head as he thought. "Well, that would be nice if we could have some more time to catch up, but… if she needs to be somewhere else right now, then go ahead."

He knelt down next to her and looked at her closely. Laguna knelt down as well. She appeared to be simply napping; her eyes were closed, but not shut tightly.

"I guess she must be tired," Laguna sighed.

"Do you know where you're planning on going after this? After she's rested a bit, I mean. It's not safe in the Capital with all those monsters, sir. We can accommodate you and Ellone on the ship for as long as you need."

Laguna smiled gratefully. "That sounds perfect. Thanks a lot for this!"

"Wait," Ellone requested abruptly. Her voice was clear and loud, nothing like that of someone who had just awoken. Her eyes latched onto the White SeeD's with a dizzying attraction. "I know you're only thinking about leaving, but I have to wait. Even if they never show up, I _have _to wait."

This was it: this was who they were looking for. He was sure of it. "Who are you talking about?

* * *

Raijin stayed where he was and refused to speak, regardless of what Fujin tried to say. 

"Raijin, come on!" she pleaded. "Why are you just turning your back on him like this?"

He sighed and gave in to her persuasion momentarily. "Okay, look. We tried, but he didn't listen to us, ya know? So we should just let him figure things out on his own—"

She rolled her eyes. "I can't believe this," she spat fiercely. "In that case, you can stay and drown in your own guilt!" The door yielded to her presence and flew open, then shut again behind her.

* * *

Ellone stopped to loiter outside Adel's room. 

"Are you sure they'll be okay, Uncle Laguna?" There was a slight note of anxiety in her words.

Laguna allowed his gaze to wander. "We can only hope, I suppose," he sighed. "No matter how good they are, something could always go wrong." He paused to think over what he just said, then shook his head vigorously. "Nah. No use thinkin' about all that depressing stuff!"

She laughed freely at how little he had changed ever since they had last met. She hadn't laughed like that in a long time.

Wait. All she did was blink, and Fujin startlingly appeared before her. Ellone stared as if mesmerized, searching for a split-second answer to Fujin's arrival. Fujin definitely wasn't there to drag her somewhere else; she was sure of it. And that's when she noticed her answer: a look of fear and utter desperation, a barely noticeable—yet still present—softening of body attitude.

"Where's Seifer?"

"Seifer." She had been so preoccupied with Squall that she had forgotten about Seifer. Just like Fujin, she started to panic a little. She had no idea where he was. When did she last see him? And deep inside, she could feel the guilt slowly enveloping her: she was supposed to pay equal attention to all of them, and yet she let her predisposition get in the way.

"Did he get sucked into Time Compression?" Fujin's eyes narrowed in noticeable anxiety rather than hostility. "Was he _in that room _when you initiated Time Compression?"

Ellone hung her head and gesticulated weakly with her hand. "… I'm sorry."

Even still, she dared to glance up. The raw emotion behind Fujin's facial expressions almost demanded to be noticed; intrigued by this facet of her, Ellone let her own actions run free, just to see what would happen.

"He brought this on himself," she muttered sadly. "Whatever it is you're asking me to do, I can't help you. It's just too late." She squeezed her eyes shut and blinked a few times, trying to stave off her exhaustion.

"So you… can't bring him back here somehow?" Fujin's voice sounded small and hollow.

"I can't. They all have to find their own way back. Seifer is no exception."

Fujin didn't budge. "Then, can't I go _there_?"

Ellone eyed Fujin most curiously. Smiling inwardly, she nodded and stepped aside.

"Good luck then. It's dangerous to be all alone in there."

"We'll wait up for you," Laguna assured Fujin. "Go!"

Fujin yanked opened the door and was immediately sucked in.

"Are you sure about this?" she asked Laguna. "The Galbadians could come any second once they find out we're here."

Laguna smiled. "Oh, don't worry. I have a good feeling about this."

Ellone grinned back. Apparently, he noticed the same thing about Fujin that she had.

…

Ellone blinked again—at least, she thought she did—and Fujin flew out of the Timestream and collapsed onto the floor. The White SeeDs swarmed around her, helping her sit up, then stand.

And then the question, the very same one all over again.

"Where's Seifer? Do you know where Raijin is?" the leader questioned her.

Fujin stared down at her feet. She could see snowflakes clinging to her bangs drooping downward, along with her mood, and snow still stuck to her boots.

"He won't be coming," she declared simply, then turned and headed back to the room where Raijin was waiting. And what perplexed Ellone most was the complete lack of expression in her words and actions, when, during their previous encounter, the exact opposite had been true.


	3. Restless

Rinoa flipped over onto her back, then squinted in surprise as the sunlight smacked her in the face. She groaned and reluctantly sat up.

"Rinoa!" Selphie squealed happily from her chair. "Rise and shine, sleepyhead!"

"Mm, shut up."

Selphie merely giggled to herself. A dreamy sigh soon overtook her, and she cupped her cheeks in the palms of her hands to conceal her wide grin.

Rinoa watched her suspiciously. "What _is _it?" she asked with just a hint of mischief in her voice.

There was a momentary silence. "Oh, nothing," she murmured. "I was just thinking about… last night, and…." Her face fell. "Oh yeah, that's right."

"Hm?" Rinoa responded absentmindedly, pulling the sheets away.

"You know, that thing about Squall."

She nodded. "Hey, listen, about that. Don't bring it up in front of him, okay?"

Selphie nodded as well and said nothing more. She secretly doubted that anyone would dare bring it up, regardless of whether they had been forbidden to speak of it.

The loudspeaker chimed three times. _"Good morning, everyone, this is Headmaster Cid speaking. Would Squall, Selphie, Irvine, and Zell please report to my office. I repeat, Squall, Selphie, Irvine, Zell, please report to my office. Thank you."_

"Well, that's my cue." Selphie bounced up out of her chair. "See ya!" she sang out and waved cheerfully just before the door sealed shut.

Rinoa sighed and shook her head wearily.

Over the loudspeaker, Cid cleared his throat. _"On another note, we will be docking in Fisherman's Horizon… just about…"_ Rinoa sensed a gentle change in motion, _"now for repairs due to Galbadia's invasion. We will be here until the Garden is completely repaired. That is all."_ The line clicked off.

* * *

Squall left his dormitory wordlessly; his mind was completely blank. He didn't have any idea what Cid wanted to discuss, and he wasn't very concerned about what it might be, either. 

"Hey, Squall." Irvine pulled up beside Squall and fell into stride. Squall hummed momentarily in acknowledgment. "So like, do you know what this is about?"

He shrugged nonchalantly. "Probably something he forgot to mention yesterday."

Irvine paused to think for a moment. "But that doesn't make any sense. Why aren't Quistis and Rinoa invited, then?"

… _Of course. Why didn't that occur to me before?_

"I have no idea."

…

"I'm sorry to spring this upon all of you so soon after your last mission," Cid began. Those words most definitely did not bode well for them, and, indeed, Squall could feel his insides dropping. "However…" Cid wrung his hands nervously, "I'm going to have to ask you all for your services again."

Cid could feel the disappointment seeping into every corner of the room. He couldn't tell whether Squall was the only one sending out the angry vibes, or whether everyone felt the same way. The expression on his face was most apologetic, but he, too, wasn't happy with the situation they were being thrust into. After a slight hesitation, he plunged into the mission briefing and didn't let up.

"Balamb Garden has been contacted by the Galbadian military." He paused and waited for some sort of response, then realized that they were unable to show any kind of response—they were standing stiffly at attention. "Oh, sorry. At ease." The four relaxed, but still didn't betray any dissenting opinions.

"Free democratic elections are being organized as we speak, and to prove the legitimacy of these elections, they have requested Balamb Garden for a three- to five-member electoral commission. Why Balamb Garden? Because Garden has an international reputation of neutrality, and Balamb Garden has the most people in it right now and has an actual record of upholding—" he cleared his throat suggestively, "—that reputation.

"Hm, what else?" he asked himself aloud. "Oh, why you four? It helps if the individual members of electoral commissions are quite reputable themselves, and… this is the only way I know how to do it. We've never had a mission request quite like this one, so…. I'm sorry. I know you all must be upset over this because it's so soon, like I said."

Squall raised his hand; Cid pointed to him and nodded.

"You said 'three to five people,' right?"

Cid nodded again.

"So why wasn't Quistis chosen, too? Wouldn't having an instructor make things even better? I mean we still have room for one more person, and…."

Cid took a deep breath. "Yes, it would be 'even better,' but that's simply not an option at this time."

"Why not? You can't send five, or you just can't send _her_?"

"Squall!" he admonished. "That's enough! Are you questioning my judgment?"

"No, sir." He blinked emotionlessly.

"Are you assuming that I'm making an illogical decision?" He didn't know why he was berating him, but the complexity of his arrangements was turning his personality sour.

"No, sir."

Selphie frowned noticeably and raised her hand as well. "Is there something bothering you, sir?"

He cracked a slight, rueful smile. "You guys just don't miss a beat, do you?" He turned away from them. "But you're right. There are a lot of things on my mind right now." Turning back to face them, he added, "However, the things we haven't discussed are not your concern. Please don't waste your time worrying about them."

…

"… So we have two days to prepare before we go, and then one day there before the day of, and then one day after that before we go home," Selphie finished with a small laugh. "You guys'll be fine by yourselves, though, right?" she added cheerfully.

Rinoa rolled her eyes at Selphie's unusually upbeat behavior. "Why are you acting so hyper?"

"Rinoa, concentrate on what she _said_," Quistis sighed. "She turned to the others and asked, "Now, I don't care how stable Galbadia seems to be. You guys should really be careful when you're there."

"Relax," Zell huffed. "Geez, it's not like we haven't been there before."

"Yeah," Irvine chimed in, "the situation was a lot worse last time."

Squall's eyes roamed freely from one face to another. "But still, we can never be too sure. It's much too soon to tell how things will turn out over there."

Quistis didn't look very happy with the arrangement, either. She rose to her feet decidedly, her lips tightly pursed.

"Just get everybody through it in one piece and get back here on schedule, okay, Squall?" she advised tensely.

"I don't get why everybody's so hung up over this," Irvine felt the need to comment.

Rinoa scoffed. "Don't you get it? We're _worried_! Anything could be going on over there! Anything could happen once you guys get there!" She stretched her arms out and cupped her palms over he kneecaps. "It's the Galbadian military that's hiring you, right?" she asked anxiously. "so who's running the military now? _Seifer _still?"

"Seifer… probably doesn't have any control over them now that Ultimecia has stopped meddling in our time," Squall concluded. "However way they're running themselves, though, seems to be working well enough for now."

"Seifer…" Rinoa mumbled distantly. "So where do you think he is now?"

"Oh dear," Quistis sighed, "we didn't even consider what could've happened to him."

Rinoa started to play with her hair absentmindedly. "I remember he dragged me over to Adel, and then… I didn't seem him again after that," she finished vaguely. "He could be _anywhere_!"

Zell smacked his fist into the palm of his other hand. "Well, if I ever see him again, I'm not gonna let him get away without a nice, sound whooping!"

"Zell!" Quistis scolded. "Don't you feel any sympathy for him at _all_?" She turned to Squall. "Come on, I'm sure _you _don't hate him." She stared at him expectantly.

Squall shrugged emphatically and hung his head. "I don't really feel anything either way for him," he confessed. "I'm just glad it's all over… but I also hope he didn't die in the process."

Irvine narrowed his eyes. "But Cid was pretty preoccupied when we were there," he ruminated. "You know, I wouldn't be too surprised if Seifer has something to do with it."

Rinoa jerked her head up at once. "You think?"

"Tch. You're probably right," Zell admitted. "But we don't have time to be investigating, sticking our noses in stuff he told us not to get involved in."

"He's right." Quistis straightened her glasses. "You four need to focus on preparing. And I have too much on my hands with the repairs and whatnot as it is, so let's just forget about it for now. Worry about yourselves and your own problems first," she declared with finality.

"I'll do it."

All eyes rested on Rinoa, who fidgeted uneasily.

"_What_? Isn't that what you're all implying anyway, saying, 'Oh, I'm too busy for this'?"

Zell shrugged. "Suit yourself."

"Well, I don't know about this…" Quistis murmured. "If you really have nothing else to do, then go for it, I suppose." Her eyes locked with Rinoa's. "But don't endanger yourself just for the sake of finding out where he is."

* * *

Once again, she had lapsed into that state of existence where nothing around her had any influence on her; she ignored her surroundings completely. When there were friends to talk to, she greatly appreciated their company, but when she was left by herself, her thoughts spun out of control and would not rest. That evening was another one of those times for her. 

The White SeeD leader gently rested his hand on her shoulder and said, "It's time to get moving, Ellone"

She blinked once in reply—she seemed to be returning to normal—but didn't make a move to stand up. Her eyes remained hazy and focused on an alternate dimension inside her head. He turned and silently nodded to his other escorts.

…

By the time they boarded Balamb Garden, it was completely nightfall outside.

"Fujin, Raijin," the leader addressed curtly, "the headmaster throught it best to move you both into one dormitory double so your former roommates wouldn't be disturbed. Your possessions have already been moved."

"Please follow me," the burgundy-haired woman, also a White SeeD, added. "I'll escort you to your new dorm."

Fujin and Raijin followed, not speaking to each other. In fact, they hadn't spoken ever since Fujin had returned for him. They shared only furtive glances heavy with implied ideas. The little things could wait.

Ellone watched them emotionlessly as they disappeared around the bend in the second-floor hallway.

"May I visit the infirmary first?" she asked.

The leader nodded. "It's getting late, but Dr. Kadowaki's been waiting. Just in case."

Laguna scratched his head anxiously. "You sure you're okay, Elle?"

"I'll be fine."

* * *

The new dormitory double looked just the same as the old ones, but it still felt surreal to be inside it, as if they didn't belong there anymore. The polished surfaces echoed coldly back, as if trying to repel them. 

For the first time since Fujin's return, Raijin spoke.

"Tell me where he is, Fujin."

She shook her head briskly. "Can't." After a few moments of rearranging her things in the entrance room, she added, "Why? Why do you care, anyway?"

"That's not an answer, ya know. I don't get why you're not telling me anything!"

Her narrowed gaze bored into his. "_Yeah_? _Well_, maybe if you had come with me instead of abandoning like that, _then_ you'd know!" she snarled.

"You don't need to get confrontational, ya know! How can ya expect me to understand what's going on if you won't tell me the truth?"

She walked up the nearest chair slowly, quietly, and slumped miserably into it.

"Don't talk about this. I don't want to think about it anymore, okay?"

Raijin chose a bedroom and left her alone. However, he, on the other hand, had little else he wanted to think about.

He decided that Seifer was probably not dead, judging from his sister's recent behavior. But he was also aware that he was thinking too conventionally—the usual Seifer-esque problems were what he was anticipating, and by being trapped in a narrow mindset, he was missing out on something very important. Whatever that something was, he couldn't guess at it; it could be anything. He had no choice but to wait until it took him by surprise.

* * *

"Look, Rinoa," Edea huffed, "it's already after hours. I can't tell you anything, so just go to bed. You don't want to be inconsiderate to Selphie by showing up this late!" 

Rinoa bobbed her head distractedly. She had made a game out of petting the Kramers' couch, shifting the fibers back and forth with her hand.

"Well, if you're sure…" Rinoa mumbled forlornly, trying to wring an answer out of Edea with her behavior.

"Oh, all right then!" Edea groaned, throwing her hands up in the air. "If I say _one _thing, will you _go to bed _already?"

Rinoa perked up immediately. "Okay!"

Edea crossed her arms pensively. "I don't know where he is. Nobody does…."

Rinoa's eyes focused in shrewdly. "… But?"

"I never implied anything of the sort," Edea snapped hurriedly. "Listen to me. There is nothing to be done. Even with everyone's best efforts, you _can't _go—chasing after him, trying to persuade him to change his ways or what have you. There's nothing for us to do but _wait_." Her face was taut and fearfully pale as she pleaded.

Rinoa abruptly rose to her feet. "Good night, Mrs. Kramer," she breathed with artificial courtesy. Edea nodded and saw her to the door, but surprised Rinoa y stepping out into the hallway as well, locking the door behind her.

"Where are you going?" Rinoa asked, completely nonplussed. "Weren't you just saying that it's after hours?"

"Yes, but I have somewhere I have to be," she replied matter-of-factly. Then she remained stationary for a moment to mull things over. "Actually, now's just as good a time as any for visiting. I know for sure she'd like to check up on you, seeing how you were comatose the last time she saw you… unless you wish to follow my advice about going to bed at a decent hour, that is," she offered in a purposely tantalizing tone of voice. The twinkling gleam that reignited in Rinoa's eyes said what her words didn't have to. However, there was another thought present in her expression. Edea could only grasp its outlines and do no more than guess at it, but she sensed a dawning apprehension in Rinoa, as if, on some level, she understood exactly what their errand was about.

* * *

Dr. Kadowaki frown lines deepened in concern. "Do you mean to say that you haven't slept _at all _since Time Compression?" 

Ellone sighed restlessly. "I guess I haven't," she admitted. "Is it just because I was worried about everyone?"

Dr. Kadowaki shook her head. "Only you can say that for yourself, dear. But I hope that this bout of insomnia of yours will go away if you stay here, away from everything out there," she assured her with a confident nod of her head.

"Wait, there's more… that I wanna say." Even as the sparse words stumbled out of her mouth, her mind began to shut down yet again; now she could think about nothing but the thoughts she preferred to keep inside this world that existed only in her head. With her eyes misted over, she began:

"I can't stop thinking about how much better everything would have been if I had died along with my parents, or if I hadn't been born at all, even."

Dr. Kadowaki's face hardened on the impact of Ellone's words upon her ears. "Stop this, Ellone."

She scoffed bitterly. "Why? It's true, and nobody wants to admit it, but if my mere existence causes this many problems, then I'm sure things wouldn't have turned out this way if I had never been around to have been dragged into it!" Her eyes burned fiercely as her voice escalated into a holler. It felt remarkably good to yell unhindered.

"Think about all the _good _that came out of all this," Dr. Kadowaki insisted. "Would Squall, Zell, Irvine, Selphie, and Quistis have found each other again if our powers hadn't—well, brought them together beause of the circumstances? Would Squall have come around if he hadn't been forced into fighting the sorceress?"

"Are you saying that all this was _meant _to happen?"

Dr. Kadowaki hesitated before responding. "In a way." Leaning in closer, she added, "Listen. You _have _to believe it, even if—even if it doesn't really work that way. Once you lose the ability to accept things for how they are, you'll _never _be able to see things any differently. Everything played out the way it did for a reason, do you understand me? You _don't _have to understand why it happened, but you _do _have to accept that it _happened_, and nobody can change it! Not even you!"

Much to her shock, tears were streaming down Ellone's face; she hadn't even noticed them start to form.

"Oh dear… I'm so sorry for upsetting you," she stammered, standing up quickly. After a few uneasy seconds, she finished, "I… I think I'd like you to stay here with me for a night or two. It'd be good for you."

Ellone nodded, not bothering to protest. When Dr. Kadowaki was gone from the room, leaving only a ringing silence in her wake, Ellone said aloud, "I know I can't change it… but why can't I at least slow all of this down so I'll… have more time or something?"

_Is this why I won't sleep? Because things feel like they're happening too fast if I lose consciousness?_

Her tears grew cold, but she didn't brush them away. She had figured out that it took strength to cry when she should, and she didn't want that feeling to fade. She wanted to feel that she had a purpose for being alive. At that moment, she knew that if anybody on the planet could have her powers instead of her, she would rather it be her: she knew that at least _she _could handle them.

* * *

Dr. Kadowaki emerged from the infirmary, appearing very sad and frustrated. "Hello, Edea, and—oh ,Rinoa! Good to see you walking and talking again!" she began. "Edea, why didn't you tell me you were bringing Rinoa?" She looked to Edea expectantly. 

"Yes, well, I didn't think of bringing her until just now. You seem to be busy, so how about we just—schedule something between you two for some other time?"

"Well, that's all right with me," said Dr. Kadowaki. "You just drop in sometime soon if you need me."

"Um, okay," Rinoa agreed.

"Wait! Rinoa!"

Ellone was standing just outside the entrance. "There's something I want to tell you."


	4. Unanswered Questions

The Balamb Garden student body awoke to an announcement that sent ripples of shock and surprise through everyone's heads:

"_Good morning once again, everyone. This is an extremely important announcement, and I need your undivided attention._

"_Please recall that in yesterday's announcement, I explained that we are at FH for repairs. That is, indeed, one of the reasons why we are here. However, there is another far more important one that I was not able to tell you yesterday._

"_I chose FH as the transfer point for Ellone, Fujin, and Raijin. Mr. Laguna Loire, the President of Esthar, is with them as well. Last night, they were moved into the Garden after hours for their own safety. The secrecy was necessary to ensure that nobody would know their destination until after they were safe._

"_I hope that all of you will welcome them back and reassimilate them into the student body. Thank you in advance for your cooperation."_

When the announcement aired, Squall was in the first-floor hallway. Upon hearing "Ellone, Fujin, and Raijin," he had stopped walking altogether.

Normally, he would've expected Seifer, Fujin, and Raijin to stick together. However, their disagreement in the Lunatic Pandora might have caused a rift between the latter two and Seifer, which would explain why Seifer wasn't with them.

_But maybe Rinoa found out something, _he thought. _I'll have to wait until the mission's over before I start worrying about other people's problems, though, _he decided, continuing on his way.

* * *

The infirmary doors slid shut behind Ellone. Rinoa stood her ground, not sure whether to be intrigued or wary of this request. 

"Yes?" Rinoa asked expectantly.

"So now you know a little bit about me," Ellone began, tucking some stray hair behind her ear. "I live on a ship and I'm always moving from place to place."

Rinoa nodded, wondering what Ellone was getting to.

"Um, well," she continued, sensing Rinoa's bewilderment, "I'm trying to stay that I can't stay in once place because… I have something unique. You and I are both unique. And if you have something that no one else has, you tend to attract… trouble."

Rinoa stared at the floor.

Ellone sniffed in her restlessness. "But I was born with my powers. I can't get rid of them."

They stared at each other intensely, trying to interpret each other's thoughts.

"It isn't worth it to be special, Rinoa. I just want you to remember that. Going back isn't the answer to everything, either. If you want to change things, you have to do it _before _it's too late." Her gaze fell. "Otherwise, you'll spend the rest of your life regretting it."

All the way back to the dormitories, Rinoa went over Ellone's words. Ellone couldn't have known how Rinoa would interpret them—could she?

_No regrets. _That meant no big mistakes, and very few small ones.

"_But I was born with my powers. I can't get rid of them." _But Rinoa could. Was that what Ellone had meant? Her heart began to beat a little faster. How did a sorceress get rid of her powers?

She shook her head vigorously, fully realizing the selfishness of her thoughts. It was unfair for her to even think of dumping her burden upon somebody else, just as it was unfair to have to live with that burden herself. She could let herself grow angry because she was unhappy with the extra responsibility, or she could be glad that no one else had to worry about it.

_If there were no other way to be rid of it, then this is what I'd tell myself. But can I settle for this, or do I want to be greedier?_

* * *

Squall saw at once with a cringe that he was dead last. Selphie had a bunch of electronics parts spread over the stage floor, and Zell and Irvine were crouched on either side of her, pointing and firing questions. 

Selphie shielded her eyes from the sun with her hand, grinning cheerfully when she caught sight of Squall.

"All right, and Squall makes four! Ah, doesn't it just feel _great _to be back here?"

He smiled slightly. "Just a little bit."

"Okay!" Selphie cleared her throat. "So in the Land of FH, it's easy to get electronic parts. I'm using them to build—" she held up a small prototype, "—a portable telephone!"

Squall eyed Zell expectantly. "Aren't you going to say something, Mr. Know-It-All Zell?"

"Ha! You read my mind!" Zell laughed in triumph, looking quite pleased with himself. "These kinds of things haven't been used ever since we were born, but now that Adel doesn't have to be kept in lockdown orbit anymore, we can use this kind of technology again! You know, using airwaves to communicate?"

Selphie beamed at Squall. "So, I think we should use these in our new mission, just in case we get separated in the crowds!"

Squall stood up, already bored with her sunny attitude for some unexplainable reason. He really wished that he weren't such a party pooper, but the whole thought of the mission was starting to bother him.

"Am I the _only _one here," he spat, his voice steadily rising, "who thinks that this whole thing is coming up too fast? 'Cause you all looked disappointed when Cid told us how soon this thing is, but now all of a sudden it's fine?"

Selphie groaned loudly and plopped her face into her hands. Irvine cleared his throat audibly.

"Hey, hey, just—chill," he suggested, holding his hands out for emphasis. "I know it _feels _like we'll never get a break, but believe me, this is probably the last thing we'll have to do for a long time. So just do this with us, and after, you can—I don't know, 'retire in peace' or whatever it is you wanna do. Okay?"

"Speaking of which, how is Cid hiring _you_? You're not a Balamb student," Squall pointed out. "Are you even a SeeD?"

"Nah," Irvine replied, "but if you're not a SeeD, they can still send you on missions, only they pay you per mission. Like, instead of getting a regular paycheck from money that your Garden earns, you're paid for each individual thing you do; Garden doesn't have any control over that money. That's why I was able to team up with you guys for that assassination mission. General Caraway handled the transaction. So you could technically rake in the dough, even if you're not a SeeD, but the SeeDs still have it better because they get the job security. And they're not bound to the 'dismissed from Garden at age 20' thing."

Squall knelt down in their midst again.

"Okay. That makes sense." Already his thoughts were wandering outside the confines of the Garden. He secretly wondered what became of the people who never became SeeDs. Sure, most people didn't stay at Garden forever and SeeD was just another rung in the ladder for them. What about people like Seifer, who tried and failed, or people like Fujin and Raijin, who didn't want to become SeeDs in the first place?"

"What? Why the funny face?" Irvine asked, poking Squall in the shoulder. Squall rocked back slightly and waved Irvine's hand away distractedly.

"Didn't you guys hear the announcement? The one about Fujin and Raijin coming aboard the Garden?"

"Yeah," Selphie responded, sounding mildly interested. "And?"

For the second time, he rose to his feet. "Don't you want to find out what happened to _them_?"

* * *

"Well, I appreciate your eagerness to make yourselves useful," Cid finally decided, "but I'm afraid you two are a little too high-profile to continue working as my messengers for the time being," he sighed grimly. 

"So what _do _ya want us to do, ya know?" Raijin asked.

"Here's the deal. Since _you_," he nodded in Raijin's direction, "don't know where Seifer is, and _you_, Fujin, won't tell anybody where he is, all the blame for Seifer's actions falls on the both of you. You're the scapegoats in his absence, but I'd rather you were here than out there, subjected to the Galbadians, or, God forbid, the Estharians. I don't—I can't even _begin _to think which one of them would be worse for you two to run into!"

"But _we _didn't do any of that stuff—" Fujin complained.

"—And if the Estharians capture you, you're gonna have to explain _really _quickly why you destroyed Esthar with that Lunar Cry—_before _they kill you on the spot, _before _the President even knows you were caught!"

Fujin growled in frustration.

"And it's not just countries," Cid continued. "You may not even be allowed to set foot in the other two Gardens ever again, and—oh, it's just no use lecturing you. I should be," he chuckled ruefully to himself, "_saving _these words for the person who actually deserves them. That Seifer, I tell you…."

Fujin and Raijin both shifted uncomfortably where they stood. 

Cid stared hard at Fujin, who stared resolutely back.

"This is the last time I'm gonna ask. Where's Seifer?"

She blinked, then replied truthfully, "I don't know."

"But—you _talked _to him and—" he muttered, trying to control his frustration.

"—And I don't know what happened to him after that," she finished, with a look that clearly stated that she wanted to drop the subject.

Sensing that he was upsetting her, Cid didn't press her for details. "All I really need to know is how he is. He's not dying or anything, is he?"

She shook her head.

"Good. So to wrap up…" he bounced on the balls of his feet, "it is my wish for you two to eventually continue your duties, but for now…." He shook his head and smirked ruefully once more.

Fujin and Raijin saluted, the former doing it quite stiffly, and proceeded to leave. Fujin muttered something, and Raijin shrugged.

"Now, I don't know _why _you won't say anything more than that," Cid muttered to Fujin's back as the doors closed upon them, "but you know who'll be at fault if something happens to him because we didn't know."

* * *

Quistis knelt down and observed the progress of the workers filling the broken chunk of the Quad balcony with cement. 

"You know, Zell and Selphie tell me that they were there when this happened," Quistis mused. "They said that Rinoa was hanging off this balcony and Squall had to go get her because they couldn't reach her."

Xu smirked and clicked her tongue. "Hahaha, Squall comes to the rescue! Now _that's _a concept I've never heard of!"

Quistis gazed off at the distant water. "Speaking of whom… I couldn't tell for sure the last time I was around him, but I think something's distracting him."

"Hm. Well, doesn't he already have another assignment?"

"Well, yes, but… I'd be upset if I were him, not having enough of a rest after—"

Xu sighed exasperatedly, cutting into Quistis' train of thought.

"Okay, look." Xu gestured for Quistis to follow so they'd be away from the ledge and the people working on it. She crossed her arms resolutely. "I really don't think it's that big of a deal, to be honest. Ah—" she held her hand out to prevent Quistis from talking; Quistis shut her mouth and exhaled through her nose.

"Just hear me out," Xu continued. "I know you've still got a soft spot for him and all, but you're acting like Headmaster Cid's dragging him out of retirement! He's a SeeD, and SeeDs are busy people! Yeah, we all like him, he saved us from Ultimecia, blah blah blah, but it's _not _just about him and what you think he deserves. We all went through this." She grabbed Quistis by the shoulders and gave her a little shake. "Okay?"

Quistis gave a tiny smile. "Well, maybe I _am _overreacting…."

Somebody behind them, someone gave a little cough. Xu and Quistis both jerked their heads in the direction of the new arrival.

Selphie waved. "Hi! Um, we were just wondering… do you guys know where Fujin and Raijin are?"

"Why?" Xu snapped irritably.

Irvine cleared his throat. "Hey hey, so like, it was _his _idea." He shoved Squall ahead of him.

Squall gnashed his teeth, feeling very annoyed with Irvine. "We _agreed _on this, Irvine—_Why is everybody staring at me?_"

Quistis lay a hand on her head and said nothing.

"What are you planning on saying to them?" Xu questioned him in a businesslike manner. "If you intend to threaten them or ask them unnecessary questions, then I can't tell you."

"Of course we're not gonna threaten them. We just wanted to _see _them."

"That sounds like asking them unnecessary questions to me," Xu replied testily. "Ugh, fine then!" she grumbled at last. "I guess they can just—refuse to answer if—if they don't like what you have to say. But if Fujin tears you apart, then that's not _my _problem."

* * *

The doors slid open one inch. Fujin was staring at them unblinkingly through the gap. 

"Yes?" At the sight of so many people on the other side of the door, her scowl became more pronounced. Then she caught sight of Squall, and her mood improved quite noticeably.

"Um, well, I guess you can come in," she muttered uneasily. The doors flew wide open, and Fujin turned and headed towards one of the swiveling chairs next to the dining table. She pulled her knees up to her chest, hugged them tightly, and, eyeing Squall somewhat expectantly, rested her head upon her knees.

"… So how've you been?" Squall asked with a slight note of hesitation. It was a mistake to come; maybe Xu had been right about not disturbing them.

"If you're here to ask about Seifer, then I have nothing to say to you," she declared suddenly.

"Hey, don't kick us out right after you let us in!" Zell stamped his foot to emphasize his point. "We just wanted to see if you guys were okay!"

She gestured around the room. "Well, it's just about the same as it used to be, except it _feels _like we're under house arrest." She laughed scornfully. "Raijin and I just talked to Cid, and he said that we can't be his messengers anymore, he can't use us because everyone knows that we supported Seifer and he thinks everybody's out to kill us." She rolled her eyes.

"Yeah, but what if they _are_?" Selphie asked.

"I guess he's not willing to take that chance. You know, for someone who doesn't need us anymore, he's acting surprisingly protective."

There was an uneasy silence.

"So where's Raijin?" Zell asked.

"Sleeping," she sighed. After a few moments of musing, she looked up again.

"Do you think we'll be expelled?"

They stirred collectively; apparently, they had all been thinking along the same lines as she.

Selphie shook her head vigorously. "If you haven't been expelled yet, then you probably never will be."

"Yeah, I mean, Balamb Garden offered to protect you, so I don't see how expelling you would keep you any safer," Irvine pointed out.

Fujin lay her ear to her knees so that she was staring off to the side. "The students I walk by don't seem to have a problem with us. But I doubt that they're the problem."

Squall absorbed her words carefully. "Then what do you mean?"

"Cid's not protecting us. He's protecting _them_, keeping an eye on us by making us stay in the Garden."

"You can't seriously believe that?" Zell asked incredulously.

Fujin shrugged dismissively. "Why not? I can't see why that _isn't _the case." She scowled shrewdly. "You weren't there. You didn't see how he was trying to coax information on Seifer out of me."

"But you can't blame him for being just a little bit suspicious," Zell asked. "We trust you guys, but maybe Cid's not sure whether he can still trust you."

"He knows that you've always been loyal to Seifer." Squall locked eyes with her. "And until he knows what Seifer's doing, he's not taking chances with you."

Her eyes narrowed further still. "I really did think that things were changing," she confessed, not without a hint of bitterness in her voice. "I actually thought that we all could—'start over.' Hmph. But you people are still too hung up on stuff we may or may not have even done in the past to give us a chance to stand on our own!"

"Hey, we didn't mean to upset you," Irvine stammered, raising his hands as if to shield himself from her rising tone of voice.

"'_You people_'?" Zell repeated with a frown.

"Well, think about it, then," she said, not appearing the least bit sorry about her choice of words. "Is it ever 'just Fujin' or 'just Raijin'? No! Everyone always says, 'Fujin and Raijin' as if we're some kind of package deal. And even if nobody says it aloud, they always link us with Seifer. Cid knows it, and I know he's expecting us to run off and—and rejoin Seifer and start some kind of disturbance all over again!"

"That never used to be a problem with you guys," Squall muttered under his breath. "You'd follow him around everywhere he went."

Her face fell as he said this. "But that was when he really needed us." She shook her head. "Now he can continue on his own." She let out a tiny laugh, as if she cared so little about the subject that laughing would somehow make it go away.

Sensing that he had stumbled across something that Fujin did not want to share with them, Squall gave her a small nod and turned to leave the dormitory. Reading Fujin's expressions was a very subtle game, but he shared his findings with no one. Perhaps the others hadn't noticed it; maybe they had never felt the same way as she, but he couldn't be sure.

Still, he had seen it and recognized it because he knew how she felt. When Rinoa had gone to the Sorceress Memorial, he had tried to override his feelings by convincing himself that it was the right thing to do. Of course, it hadn't worked. He now agreed that Cid had been smart for keeping an eye on Fujin and Raijin, but especially Fujin, even if Cid was unaware of the one reason that Fujin thought it was.


	5. Angelique

"You guys, I am sooo pumped!" Selphie cheered from the pilot's seat of the Ragnarok. "We get to go to Deling City again!"

Zell yawned grumpily. "Y-You know how when you're forced to get up really early," he said to Squall, "and then you just can't go back to sleep, even if you want to?"

"Mm-hmm, sure," Squall muttered in reply.

Zell rolled his eyes. "His "Whatever" coincided perfectly with Squall's.

Squall stared at Zell through narrowed eyes. Zell burst out laughing. Irvine sighed audibly and observed them out of the corner of his eye in a haughty, disdainful way.

"Oh, come _on_!" Selphie grumbled. "Am I the _only _one here who's even a _little bit _excited?"

"Well, _I _just want this over with," Zell answered with a frown.

"We're only going one day before the event so we can collect on the reservation," Squall assured him. "As soon as we check in to the hotel, you can go back to sleep."

"Dude, were you even _listening _you me when I said I can't fall back asleep after I've gotten up? Squall? _Hey_!"

But Squall really wasn't listening to Zell. Instead, he stood up in a daze and wandered onto the lift to descend and be alone.

* * *

It was as if the symptoms had been holding back, just waiting for this day. She had felt oddly restless all morning, although she couldn't figure out why. 

"I think you're just worried about Squall running off to Galbadia without you," Dr. Kadowaki laughed in good humor.

"A-Are you _sure_?" Rinoa insisted. "What if something else happens to me because you shrugged this off?"

At this idea, Dr. Kadowaki shook her head slowly. "Well, if you're really that concerned, I suppose it's understandable, considering your condition… here, how's this?"

She leaned forward in her chair.

"I'll ask Quistis if you can spend the night in her dorm so she can keep an eye on you. You can stay there until Selphie and the others get back."

"Well, okay," Rinoa agreed, sounding not at all convinced. "I guess it's nothing to worry about yet."

…

How many hours ago had that appointment been? She glanced over at the lump of blanket and the long blonde hair overflowing from the end of that lump nearest the window. Quistis was obviously sleeping soundly. Sighing in frustration at not being able to fall asleep herself, she stared at the shadows and strangely-shaped patches of moonlight on her sleeping bag.

The days were going by much too fast for her. Judging by the general feeling of unease and restlessness among her friends, the same thing seemed to be happening to them. But everybody seemed to be reacting to it in a different way; they were all different people, after all. It was as if she could just sit down on one of the benches hugging the fountain on the ground floor and wait only a few minutes to find that an entire hour had escaped her. Dr. Kadowaki only humored her silly fears to make her feel better, too. Or was she wrong about that?

_Maybe Dr. Kadowaki really does think it's serious, but she's putting on this act so I won't worry about it any more than I already am._

As she suddenly grew dizzy, the moonlight rolled over the floor, branching off into serpentine shadows that hugged the little hillocks in her sleeping bag. They were so infernally fascinating that she wanted them to just disappear. Maybe she could will herself to fall asleep out of sheer boredom. She closed her eyes slowly, then opened them again just as slowly, as if in a trance.

Time was a curious thing indeed. It eluded her when she wanted nothing more than to keep it standing still, and tortured her by freezing when she wanted it to pass her by.

Her vision clouded over.

* * *

It was the following morning. Selphie sat in one of the hotel rooms alone, linked to the others via her laptop and their portable telephones. 

She yawned hugely and stretched her arms out. The others hadn't reached the Presidential Residence yet, but she wanted to stay focused.

Her phone rang obnoxiously; she snatched it up.

"Hello?"

"_Okay, Selphie, now listen closely," _Cid instructed her. _"Have the others left the hotel yet?"_

"_Yes_!" Selphie clutched at her hair. "Why?" she snapped more rudely than intended. "Do you want me to bring them back?"

There was a pause on Cid's end. _"I don't want any post to be left completely empty," _he murmured. _"Can you connect me with Squall, please?"_

…

From inside his pocket, Squall's phone blared loudly. 

"I've only had this thing for five minutes and I already can't stand it," he grumbled as he took the call. "This is Squall."

"_Stop walking and stay put," _Cid told him.

Zell kept walking for another ten feet before he realized that Squall wasn't keeping up. Squall gestured for him to come back.

"Okay, I stopped," Squall answered.

"_Good. Where are you right now?"_

"I'm in the shopping district with Zell."

"_Tell Zell to go on ahead and start on his own. I have a little side-trip I want you to take."_

"Go on without me," Squall told Zell. "I'll catch up with you later."

"But that's gonna throw everything off—"

"Whatever. He has his reasons."

"'He'?"

"I'm talking to Cid. Just go! You have the camera, you know what to do."

Zell shrugged and continued on by himself.

"Now what?" Squall asked.

"_I want you to turn around and get down to the train station as fast as you can. Find the train arriving from Timber and go onboard. There'll be something left on the train that I want you to pick up and bring back to the hotel."_

He had already begun running. "So is this package something that Selphie will need?"

"_She won't need it to do her duties for this mission, but yes… you could say that," _Cid replied vaguely. _"As for identifying markings, you'll know it's what you're looking for when you see it."_ The line went dead.

…

The crowd pouring out of the escalators threatened to sweep him back into the street, but he fought his way through as best he could. One could almost call the spirit of the crowd contagious; it seemed that Galbadia's fortunes were improving fast, and everyone had high hopes for the presidential elections.

But he remained impervious to their happy mood. He thought only of the time that he had lost trying to get to the right train platform, apprehensive as to what could be inside it that he would recognize upon first sight. If they didn't need it for the mission, then why were they being given it _now_?

He paused right in front of the doors, then took a step inside. In the corridor, he chose the first cabin to the left as the starting point.

Judging from Cid's cryptic choice of words, he never would have guessed that the "something" was a person. Or, for that matter, three of them.

"Squall," Fujin and Raijin echoed simultaneously, rising to their feet. Sitting in between them, clearly unconscious, was Rinoa.

"No questions," Fujin commanded briskly, helping Raijin to carry Rinoa. Her eyes darted quickly around the cabin. "Definitely not here."

* * *

Selphie jerked her head in the direction of the noise. Squall was standing in the open doorway, followed up by Fujin and Rajin, who were carrying a sleeping Rinoa between them. She gaped in surprise and horror, but they didn't bother to wait for a response from her before coming in. 

"I—Why are you guys—and Rinoa?" she stammered weakly. "W-_What_?"

"Quiet, there's no time!" Fujin hissed. "Squall, we can take it from here. Go!"

Raijin gave Squall a nod of finality. Squall turned around wordlessly and stalked out of the room, closing the door behind him.

"Now, that wasn't so bad," Fujin mused. "I was expecting him to put up more of a fight than that."

An uneasy silence permeated the air, worsened by the action of Raijin laying Rinoa down on the unoccupied bed.

Selphie cleared her throat. "What happened? Do you know?"

"Well, we know more than you guys do anyway, ya know?" Raijin laughed with a hint of irony in his voice. "All _you_ need to know is that she's comatose. It's our job to take care of her, not yours."

"I'd feel better if you told Squall, if nobody else," she sighed, turning back to her computer screen. Irvine's and Zell's camera footage flashed on the screen, one on top and the other below it. "Well, I'm sure he's distracted _now_. Now that he actually _knows _something happened to her and he has something real to worry about."

Fujin shook her head. "That's exactly why we're not going to tell him anything he doesn't need to know."

"He's gonna spend all day trying to figure it out himself otherwise! If you had just told him, and only him, then he wouldn't have to waste his energy trying to guess what happened!" She picked up her phone slowly, but when Fujin shook her head, she tossed it back onto the bed in frustration.

"In which case, he will be even _more _distracted," Fujin declared with finality. "We're operating on different mission objectives here. _Our _mission just happens to benefit from our group being in the same general area as yours. Especially Squall."

Selphie turned the volume of her laptop up and focused on the screen, trying to block all irrelevant thought from her mind. Questions would indeed have to wait.

* * *

The room's flat surfaces were glowing blue when Quistis regained consciousness. A room that was not in darkness yet not sunlit meant that the sun was just beginning to rise. 

"Hey, Rinoa?" she muttered sleepily, peering over the edge of her bed. Rinoa's sleeping bag was empty, still zipped up completely.

Her eyes snapped open wide.

…

"She doesn't seem to have forced your door open," Edea concluded as she turned away from the control panel. "I think we should check Squall's and Selphie's rooms first."

Cid yawned. "I guess she must've gotten up and left herself if there's no sign of a struggle."

He made a beckoning gesture to Quistis.

"Come on. You go to Selphie's room and I'll go to Squall's. Edea, call Dr. Kadowaki and bring here back here."

Edea headed out the door first and once in the hallway, the three fanned out in different directions.

As soon as she opened Selphie's door, Quistis knew that the place had been ransacked.

"What is this?" she asked aloud, clutching at her hair in anguish. Glancing back at the door panel, it hadn't been forced open, either. "How could someone have torn this place up from the inside?"

Her eyes strayed to the window; it was locked from the inside. Below it, a drawer in Selphie's bedside table hung open, its contents scrambled and disorganized.

Cid froze in the doorway to Squall's dorm. The scene resembled a haunting museum exhibit designed to create an especially strong impact. Rinoa lay facedown on the floor, her elbows slightly bent and her hands flat on either side of her head. A pair of wings had sprouted from her back; they now hung limply splayed upon the floor. They had separated cleanly from Rinoa's back and taken on the role of a grisly blanket.

As for the appearance of her wings, they consisted of only bone, long bones severed at every joint, reaching out like pale white fingers. The feathers were arranged singularly; the shaft of each feather lay one inch away from its former location as part of the wing to which it belonged, radiating outward from its source.

He inhaled sharply, previously unaware that he had stopped breathing. People approached and came to a halt right behind him.

"Oh, dear," Dr. Kadowaki murmured as she gently slipped in past Cid. She carefully stepped over the winged pattern and knelt down beside Rinoa. Cradling Rinoa's head in her hands, Rinoa's expression was slack, but she was alive nonetheless. When the doctor lifted Rinoa from the floor, the wings were upset, rolling down into a jumble of feather and bone to reveal a print of congealed blood and slimy flesh in the shape of a pair of wings. On the floor, where a gap was visible, the design continued onto the clothing on Rinoa's back.

Quistis' eyes alighted upon it just as Rinoa was carried past her. It was the last thing she saw that was not overshadowed by her own guilt.

* * *

"That's it," Fujin admonished her, swiping it out of reach and handing it over to Raijin for safekeeping. "You got that? Now go do your job." 

Selphie turned back to her laptop screen, her eyes wide. Things within her mission appeared to be progressing as normal. On the other end, Squall, Irvine, and Zell were in the dark, and the latter two were not even aware that they were uninformed.

"Hey, so what was that thing Cid wanted you to do?" Zell whispered to Squall from behind the camcorder.

"We're not talking about this in public," Squall muttered tersely. He edged away from the booth they were standing in front of. Indeed, a crowd was beginning to form inside the building, making it increasingly hard for them to stick together.

In his post, Irvine leaned forward, watching through his rifle scope, which had a special camcorder attached—it recorded everything that the scope focused on.

"Now who is _that_?" he muttered to himself.

* * *

_**Alternate World: Glass Wings**_

"Who is this?"

… _Huh?_

Rinoa's eyelids burst open, but apart from her own body, she couldn't see anything at all.

Something behind her was rustling. Something on her back. She gazed out of the corner of her eye and saw a white pair of wings fused to her shoulder blades. They glowed so strongly that every inch of darkness within one foot of them was not darkness at all, but rather, light.

In front of her, a young girl faded in out of the darkness. She had strawberry-blonde hair that grew to her shoulders and bright green eyes.

"It's—It's you," the girls gasped, then fell to her knees and clutched at her head.

Rinoa ran forward, her footfalls echoing loudly, and knelt down beside her.

"My head—hurts. It hurts so bad," she cried piteously. Her hair fell around her face like a curtain, hiding it. The strands shook, and tiny teardrops fell from behind them.

_Why does it hurt? _Rinoa asked. _What happened to you?_

The girl shook her head. "Can _you _make it stop?" She gasped again and stopped abruptly. "M—My chest… it hurts, too…."

Rinoa stared hard at her and thought that she saw something glowing inside of the girl's torso. Two small balls of brilliant light stood next to each other inside her.

She took a series of deep breaths; her shuddering died down slowly, until she finally collapsed into Rinoa's arms.

_Does it still hurt? _Rinoa asked.

The girl squeezed Rinoa's arm. "Yes… but that's not something you can help me with."

She slid out of Rinoa's embrace and curled up on the ground.

"You must know by now that I'm a sorceress," she mumbled. "Otherwise, we wouldn't be here together."

Rinoa gazed off into the forever-reaching darkness. _Speaking of which… where are we?_

"We're inside your head," she replied. "But that doesn't mean I'm not real. You know that _you're_ real, after all, and I'm just the same as you."

She frowned. _So I'm dreaming, and you're a real person in my dream. _She paused. _Is this what Squall and the others were experiencing until recently? Ellone was sending their consciousness into the past._

"You've never experienced this before, have you?" She uncurled and sat upright to look Rinoa full in the face. "But yes, you're right. Ellone was the first to use this technique. That's why it's named after her, isn't it?"

Rinoa didn't respond.

"What about you?"

She blinked. _What do you mean?_

The girl exhaled slowly. "What do you want more than anything else right now?"

She looked away forcefully and didn't answer once again, suddenly feeling suspicious. It would be foolish to expose her own weaknesses to a stranger.

"Well," the girl continued, not bothered by Rinoa's reticence in the slightest, "I just think it's really interesting to meet somebody from the past."

She hesitated. "But it had to be you—"

_-- Because I'm a sorceress, too? _She finished in disgust. _You're _possessing _me just so you can—fulfill your little wish to meet someone from the past? _ She shook her head vigorously.

The girl stared at her, an unreadable expression upon her face.

"I never said that was what I wanted," she answered quietly. "It that really what you think?"

Rinoa laughed. _No. How do I know what you're trying to gain by talking to me? First your head hurt and you wanted me to help you, but now it doesn't hurt. Isn't that it? What else do you need from me?_

She curled up on the ground once more. "… I don't want sorceress powers. They're bad luck. Everyone who's had them became miserable because of it. There's a reason behind that…" she looked up at Rinoa, "isn't there?"

You just have to… deal with it somehow— 

"Why should I?" she yelled suddenly. "Even if I can't reverse what j-just happened, _I _shouldn't have to deal with _her _powers on top of it!" Her hand thrust out and clutched Rinoa's wrist. "Please, just tell me what to do. I-Isn't there a way to—to get rid of it without killing myself?"

And her eyes grew wide and fearful at the thought.

"Please. You're from 'that era'. Isn't there _anything _you can do?"

_Um, my predecessor, Edea, passed her powers on to me by accident, and she's still alive. It's because… somebody from the future possessed her and transferred her powers to me._

What was it about those words and ideas that seemed familiar to Rinoa somehow? It was as if she had just answered her own question, a question that she had never even really asked before, but was nonetheless answered. Could this be it? Could they both actually want the exact same thing?

The girl's grip tightened around Rinoa's wrist, her fingernails digging into the skin.

She laughed bitterly. "I can't contact people from the future. But… there's gotta be another way!" she moaned.

Her expression softened gradually. Rinoa's head, too, began to hurt; she scrunched her face up and shut her eyes tightly. A memory swam hazily to the surface of her thoughts….

…

"_Take a look at _this_!" Rinoa flipped a brown, ancient-looking item out from behind her back. "This is called an Odine Bangle. I found it in that man's room."_

_Zell's face lit up. _"Odine?"

"_Watcha gonna do with it?" Selphie asked._

_Rinoa began to pace around the room, tossing the Bangle as she walked. "It's supposed to suppress the sorceress' powers," she explained. "But its effects are still unknown. So I don't think they're going to be used in this mission."_

"_If it's Odine brand, it should be pretty effective!" Zell continued. "They're Number One when it comes to magical goods."_

_Quistis and Selphie both giggled in amusement behind their hands._

_Rinoa nodded, grinning. "Right! Right!" she laughed._

_Quistis suddenly grew serious. "So what exactly do you want to do with it? Are you planning to have the sorceress put it _on_?" She pointed straight at Rinoa and started moving towards her. "Who? When? How?"_

_Rinoa sighed. "That's what we're going to discuss!"_

"_We don't have time for this," Quistis muttered in annoyance. "Squall and Irvine are already standing by. We have an operation to carry out, too." She sighed. "You understand, don't you? This isn't a father-daughter quarrel. This isn't a game."_

_She whipped around and headed for the door; Zell and Selphie reluctantly followed, closing the door behind them._

_Rinoa sank down to the floor and sat. "Who said this was a game…?" she murmured to herself. "I understand what's going on… it's not like I don't have a plan…."_


	6. Beautiful Dreamers

"This doesn't make any sense at _all_," Dr. Kadowaki murmured tremulously. "Like yesterday. Just yesterday she came in because she was worried with Squall leaving the Garden. And the first night he was out—"

Edea laid a gentle hand on her shoulder. "There's no telling what went on inside her head last night. But, once again," she let her hand drop back down to her side, "don't rule out possession. After all, she _is _comatose once again."

* * *

**_Alternate World: Snowflakes_**

She could clearly hear the wind rushing past, but she couldn't say the same for her vision. Even with her eyes opened as wide as they would go, she saw nothing but darkness. She felt as though she were flying along in a stream of intangible dark matter that slipped through her fingers when she tried to grab it and hold a piece of it in her hand.

_So I find him_,she thought. _How? _She shut her eyes tightly and summoned up an image of his face: it burst forth clearly in her mind's eye, taunting her.

Her eyes flew open, and there he was. He was standing with his back to her, his head tilted slightly downward.

"Seifer!"

He shifted in position, crossing his arms and lifting his head a little, perhaps out of mild surprise. When he exhaled, his breath came out in a puff.

She walked over to him, one small step after another, until she was standing right behind him.

"What are you doing here?"

She sighed in frustration. She hadn't expected such a blunt answer, but perhaps she should have.

"I just wanted… I just wanted to talk," she explained hesitantly.

"It's snowing," he laughed, jerking his head up. "But I don't feel cold here." He threw a glance at her over his shoulder. He was no longer smiling. "Now why is that?"

"Don't change the subject," she snapped. "I came all the way here just to talk to you and—"

"Did you?" He turned around all the way and stared her hard in the face. "_No. _You came to ask a bunch of questions, and I don't have any answers for you."

She clutched at her hair. "Why are you brushing me off? I'm trying to _help _you!"

He shook his head dismissively. "You can't. There's nothing to be done. Just—just go back before you get swallowed up or something."

Her eyelids dropped ever so slightly. "I don't want to."

Another sigh escaped his lips. "No," he laughed. "Of course you wouldn't." Looking around at the snowy ground in all directions, he added, "Even _I _don't want to."

"So, _what _then?" she demanded. "You're gonna stay here forever and die all alone and miserable?" She scoffed bitterly.

"You see, the problem with the real world is that it's always _there_," he tried to explain. "It never lets up, no matter how much you want it to."

She considered this for a moment. "What's wrong with that? At least you can rely on things to always be the same."

He smoothed his hair back with one hand. "But… haven't you ever wished that time would… just stop?"

_He's getting more like Raijin every day. He can just _barely _express himself. _She suppressed a giggle.

"Just so you could think things over and figure out what to do next?"

There was a long pause. She gazed back blankly.

"I don't know. I've never thought about it before."

At first, he said nothing.

"Well, I'm just saying…." He sniffed sharply.

"What?"

"… If you don't agree with me, then you really should go, but… it'd be nice… if you could stay."

She tried to meet his gaze, but he was purposely avoiding looking at her. She frowned sadly.

"… Right."

Staring straight into the sky, he let the snowflakes float down onto his face. "Fujin…" he looked her in the eye once more, "Look at me. What do you think?"

"W-What?" she stammered. "I—"

"Is this me in here, or is this somebody else?"

She turned away quickly, horrorstruck, but he grabbed her wrist and whipped her around to face him. Staring pleadingly at her, he demanded, "Tell me."

She looked down at her feet and let her arm go limp in his grasp. "It's…" she slid her arm out of Seifer's grip, "hard to say."

He pressed on. "What did Raijin say?"

"… Well, as you can see," she took a deep breath, "it's going to take a while before he forgives you. I mean…." She stretched her hand out weakly, as if it would explain everything somehow.

He nodded once. "And what made you see things differently, then?"

"What do you mean?"

Their eyes locked.

"Raijin's not here, but _you are._"

She sighed and sat herself down in the snow. "Do you remember the things I said to you before we met up here?" she asked, brushing her hands off on her pants.

He nodded again.

"Good," she scoffed, "because I still mean it."

His breath continued to come out in puffs. "This place… the real world…." And just like that, he started laughing.

"What?" she muttered irritably. Why did he have to speak in such vague terms? It was so unlike him, the way he was acting….

"The real world never changes," he rhapsodized vaguely once again. "But here it's the opposite. Look." He jerked his chin up a little, pointing o the sky with it. "It's the surroundings that are changing to match us."

She was silent for a few moments. "Interesting…." Gazing up at him, she asked hesitantly, "How long did it take you to figure all this out? How long—How long have you _been _here?"

He chose a spot and knelt down beside her. "Seriously?" he asked, eyeing her unblinkingly. "I have no idea."

* * *

Irvine glanced up from his sniper rifle to absorb the bigger picture. The two people in question stood out to him not because of how they were dressed—even though they did look a little out of place—but because they had just appeared out of nowhere. 

A young man with whitish-blonde hair and a cloth obscuring his mouth and softening the angles of his nose was proceeding slowly to the open gates, a shorter and slightly younger girl with long black hair snaking her arm around his. The boy tilted his head back the tiniest bit to catch the girl's whispered message as Irvine narrowed his focus towards her moving lips and tongue.

_Don't do anything stupid_. She smiled briefly, but even this attempt at appearing relaxed did not go unnoticed by Irvine. Irvine had the distinct impression that the relationship between them was anything but relaxed.

_What do you think you're _doing? he snarled, trying to pull away from her, but she very gently reeled him back in.

_Isn't it obvious? I'm making sure you'll lose._

And a pair of cloudy black, feathery wings exploded forth from her shoulder blades.

Panicked screams rippled outward in all directions from the two in the middle.

"Irvine!" Selphie cried through his earbud. The boy's eyes flashed angrily, his blade already halfway out of its sheath. But the girl was too quick: she blasted him twenty feet backward, knocking down half a dozen people in his way.

The trigger yielded gently to Irvine's touch; a wound tore open and spurted a jet of dark red blood that spread through her hair like a gruesome flower bursting open. Turning her head slowly, tauntingly, their eyes met for a single moment. He was forcefully reminded of the same intense gaze he had witnessed several times before. And in the next moment, as he knew it would be, he felt absolutely nothing.

"Irvine?" Selphie squeaked out. No one answered.

* * *

He scrambled to his feet in time to see a brownish figure topple out of the Arch of Triumph. Fresh screams erupted from the general area where Irvine had fallen. 

Her eyes latched onto the gleaming bluish-silver blade in his hands. A haughty sneer distorted her features. "Don't just stand there. You have nothing to lose now! Come at me!" And her eyes narrowed menacingly. "You know I deserve it, don't I?"

He slid his foot back, carefully edging away from her while holding his gunblade up. There was no need to turn around to sense the Galbadian soldiers swarming around them like a gathering storm cloud. However, none of them dared to do anything to anger her further.

"Hey, did you hear that?" Zell asked Squall, nervously glancing towards the gates outside. "People are screaming."

Zell prized the camcorder out of Squall's hand, raised it to his eye, and inched through the crowd towards the entrance. A ripple of concerned murmuring was spreading through the people still on the floor. Squall drew his gunblade to general gasping and tailed him closely.

"Is it a good idea to keep filming at a time like this?" he hissed in Zell's ear.

"Selphie's getting a live feed of all this footage," Zell responded without lowering the camcorder. "If this gets ugly, I can just ditch it and we'll have a backup copy on her computer anyway." He shrugged unconcernedly.

Squall grumbled something incoherently, but fell silent upon sight of the winged girl and her fair-haired opponent. The boy concentrated solely on her, but she simply couldn't resist a curious glance in his direction.

For a single moment, time seemed to stop for her and Squall. She smiled knowingly when their eyes met. He had seen those eyes before: the first time, they had gazed disdainfully back as he had toppled over backwards and plummeted down from the float before another set of eyes had taken over, one that was to succumb to the same disease, possession by Ultimecia….

The boy wasted no time:

"_Haste!"_

And with a burst of golden light streaking through the air in his wake, he closed the gap between them—

"_No!"_

The camcorder flew in the girl's direction; she deflected it and sent it hurtling at the boy's head. He flicked it over his head with the flat side of his weapon. Her gaze invariably rested upon Zell, who had his fists raised threateningly.

"You two! Get outta here!" the boy barked in their direction.

_Not them, _he thought desperately to himself, but Squall and Zell had already teamed up on her. And then he had switched sides, cleaving a space between them and her in which he stood alone.

They stared. Perhaps they were confused as to which side he was on. It was smart of them to hold back: they had no idea what was _really _going on.

Out of all of them, she glared most malevolently at Squall.

"That man," she spat, pointing at the Arch of Triumph to indicate Irvine. "Is he the last one of you?"

"Yes," Squall replied without hesitation. She peered deeper into his eyes; he looked away quickly, but not fast enough.

_She knows he's lying._

She was walking towards him and away from Squall now. "I'm telling you, stay out of this—" he began, but his voice froze as soon as she grabbed hold of him. Their bodies dissolved into vapor, and he saw, as they disappeared, the expressions of apprehension upon their faces, their inability to grasp the significance of her visit.

* * *

Before the girl could begin to defend herself, she sank to her knees with a pained grimace. Eyebrows knitted pleadingly, she collapsed at her feet. The laptop shut off with a descending hum. 

He snapped his eyes off in the direction of the door joining the two adjacent rooms together. As if he himself had caused it to happen, the door burst open violently and he found himself only a few feet away from yet another familiar face….

A tingling sensation stole over him, spreading from his feet to his brain until he was entirely submerged. But even as he raised his sword against him, he choked on the heady spell trying to drown him in its depths, resisting its effects. He shot past Raijin into the next room: had Raijin allowed him to go past, or had it been merely his own swiftness due to his para-magic spell?

But now Raijin was trapped in the doorway, and she moved slowly, her eyes only for her new quarry….

At the mere sight of her, he broke free, barely registering the frustrated snarl of his oppressor. Fujin stared back at him down the barrel of her handgun. He felt impressed, proud, even: he hadn't even heard her cock her gun from behind the door. Had she done it before he had even arrived?

Raijin backed quickly out of the doorway, sensing disagreement between the intruders. Fujin stayed put, her back against the wall, right next to the gaping doorway the girl was stepping through.

She pointed her fingers at Raijin, whose body crackled and turned to stone almost immediately.

Fujin continued to stare, her eyes darting wildly from the girl to the boy and back again. The girl smiled as she observed Fujin's actions, stripping their mysteries bare.

"Well?" the girl asked.

Fujin blinked. "W-What?"

"Are you going to stand aside and let me kill him, or would you prefer to do it yourself?" she sneered.

She considered this for a moment. "Why did you have to come here and do this in front of me? You figure this out on your own time, on someone else's property!"

"No," the girl decided simply. "I'd rather see you do it." After a few seconds' inactivity on everyone's part, she added, "Go on, dispose of him for me. Keep in mind that you're in no position to be making negotiations."

Her eyes gleamed triumphantly. "If there's one mistake you shouldn't make, it's assuming you know which side everyone falls into. You'll see," she shrieked, pointing threateningly at the boy. "He'll meddle in your problems, even make them worse. _Do it. _Kill him now, before he has the chance to destroy you, too!"

Fujin gazed into the boy's eyes, searching for answers. He gazed back, his expression calm. Then he dropped his eyes to the floor, pursing his lips as he shook his head so slightly that she almost didn't see him do it.

"Do as you see fit," he told her quietly. "She knows she can't hurt you. Make your own decision."

The girl's eyes glinted malevolently. "True. It's not your time yet." She nodded to Fujin in what appeared to be a respectful manner, and vanished on the spot.

The boy stared where the girl had just vacated, looking horrorstruck.

"What is it?" Fujin asked uncertainly. He turned, closed the door, then came back to face her.

"She was right," he mumbled. "I'm stuck in this time period because she just left."

"So _she _brought you here?"

He nodded, then began to pace distractedly. "You guys don't have the technology to send me back. I'll have to—contact Ellone herself." Whipping around to face her, he cried out in anguished tones, "Do you see? Everything she just said—she just set me up so I'd _have _to meddle!"

Fujin clutched her head in anxiety. "Something tells me that I should be trying to avoid you. I don't know who the _hell _you are, just barging in here with her and acting like you know precisely who _I _am, but assuming you're not holding me hostage in this room, I'd like a little break to figure out what's just happened!"

"I'm not gonna hurt you. Like she said, you'll survive this encounter no matter what I try to do to you."

"But _why _am I supposed to survive? What is this? A prophecy?" She shoved him hard in the chest, trying to coerce him into meeting her gaze, but he evaded her expectant glances out of sheer desperation.

"You really have no idea who I am?"

* * *

"You really have no idea who I am?" he said, somewhat suspiciously. 

She listened carefully at the foot of the door, her back to the wall she had dragged herself up against. She disciplined her breathing to come slowly and silently.

There was a short pause, and then the faint rustling of clothing.

"This…" and the boy sighed, "This isn't the way things are supposed to be. This shouldn't have to happen to you, and I shouldn't have to be the one to do it."

Another pause.

"What are you talking about?" she said.

"It'll end up much worse if I don't give you information." He sniffed. "I'm sorry."

There was another rustling of clothing, more pronounced this time. From behind the door, Fujin gasped in utter horror.

"Watch over me," he told her brusquely, "and good luck.

"Thirty days," he added as he moved to the doorway, pausing one breath before it. "Got that?"

Fujin was breathing heavily. "Thirty days till what?"

He sighed again. "This is something you're not going to live with for the rest of your life. I won't allow it."

The door sprang open, thoroughly startling her, and she found herself face-to-face with him, who towered above where she sat. She inhaled sharply.

He knelt down beside her; their faces were less than a foot away from each other.

"That conversation," he said quietly, "wasn't for you." Staring into his eyes, she thought she saw a flicker of inner pain flash over them.

His hand flashed through the air and recoiled just as quickly. He pierced her neck, and then pulled her arm close and injected her with something else. The side of her neck tingled, and when she touched the spot in question, a droplet of blood lingered on her fingertip.

His eyes narrowed as he gave a single, curt nod. She collapsed. She heard him open the door that led to the hall, step outside, and close it with a click.

"Hello?" Fujin asked quietly, stepping over the threshold. A tiny rivulet of blood had slid down her neck. She froze when their eyes met.

"You too?" Fujin said, pointing to her neck. "You heard all of that?"

She blinked, thinking hard. "So… where'd that girl go?"

"Where'd she go? I don't _know_!"

"But… she was just in there!" she cried hysterically. "She was telling you to kill that guy, and then all of a sudden, _he _came out—and—and—"

Fujin stared at her unblinkingly. She looked thoroughly confused: too confused to be lying.

"What?" she asked.

It was a rare sight to see, but it was happening even still. Fujin blinked once, and a large teardrop rolled down her cheek just as her eyes sprang open.


	7. Adrift

"I've lived on this ship for the last twelve years," Ellone sighed.

Laguna nodded. "It's not too hard to imagine living here for years at a time," he commented. "You guys all seem pretty close."

"Yes, we all get along well."

The ocean's surface undulated in the ship's wake.

"You look worried," he said.

She took a deep breath. "How bad is the damage?"

He scratched his head uneasily. "Well… the Presidential Palace is still standing, and the middle floors are intact. So that's where we'll be staying." He paused.

"And?"

"Hm?"

She tucked a lock of hair behind her ear. "So most of the buildings are still standing, then?"

"Oh yeah, yeah, they're holding up," he added hastily. "But some people did die."

She nodded silently, then turned to face him. "But we shouldn't be entering the city! You're the president! It's too risky!"

"No it's not. The monsters are out."

"What? What happened to them?"

He stared down at the rippling waves. "It was pretty complicated, but we rounded them up and isolated them in the Trabian Mountains."

"… I see." She paused. "It's the same thing you did with Adel."

He looked taken aback. "Whaddaya mean?"

"It's just a thought, but the whole idea just… worries me somehow."

He took a deep breath. "There's more."

"Okay."

"After clearing his throat, he said, "Kiros picked up a rumor from Trabia. They're saying that Seifer was there recently.

"Does it mean anything to you?"

"… No."

* * *

He nodded appreciatively at what he saw. "We really did it, huh?" 

His fellow field researched muttered, "Well, I'll concede to _that _much."

"Why the grumpy attitude?" He moved to the side and started snapping shots with a digital camera.

"Look, I know containing and observing them seems like the most logical thing to do, but this is a special situation."

He raised his eyebrows in mild interest. "How so?"

"You know the Islands Closest to Heaven and Hell?"

He nodded again. "Yeah?"

"Why are the monsters there so strong?"

"… Because there are no weak monsters to stabilize the genetic pool," he supplied slowly, already able to see where the discussion was going.

"Exactly," he muttered. "Here on the main landmasses, the genetic pool has attained and maintained equilibrium. You can't stop these Lunar Cries from coming. We should be keeping them out of the city—"

"—which we are doing—"

"—and letting them assimilate into the mainland genetic pool! If these monsters spawn and become stronger with each new generation, we're not gonna be able to contain them forever!"

He rolled his eyes, clearly overruled. "Then go take your little theory up with Doc Odine! He's the only nut job on this continent who'd listen to _that_. And I happen to _not _be him. So shut it."

"Anal-retentive bastard," he grumbled under his breath.

"Hey, what _is _that?" He pointed to a stranger shadow in the background of one of the shots he had just taken. "… A humanoid monster?"

"Looks like a… person. Maybe that's what it is."

* * *

_**Alternate World: Snowflakes (Part II)**_

Fujin hugged her knees.

"You're acting so strangely. You're not acting like yourself at all."

"I think it's because the past 'me' wanted to be alone."

"… You didn't want me to find… that _version _of you?" she asked.

He didn't answer.

She exhaled heavily. "What's happening to you? This isn't like you. You speak differently… you even look different."

He raised one eyebrow. "You think so?"

She nodded.

"She's sucked the life out of you," she murmured. "You look so tired…. Idiot," she sniffed.

He tilted his head. _"What?"_

"Yeah!" she yelled suddenly, flying into a rage. "You heard me! All of this comes back to _you_! And the worst thing is that you _chose _it! You actually wanted this to happen, _you _started it! And _we _had to chase after you to try and fix what you did—_everybody _had to!"

There was a long pause in the conversation, which Seifer used to regard her curiously.

"… And?"

Fujin scoffed. "What's _that _supposed to mean?" she shrieked. "Are you saying you don't _care_?"

"No," he replied calmly. "I'm saying I already know that."

"… Oh," she mumbled, feeling both surprise and embarrassed. "But then, what are you going to _do _about it?"

He nodded knowingly. "I have some plans."

"Can you tell me?"

"No."

She rolled her eyes.

"Well, I have an idea," she said, catching some snowflakes in her open palm. "Maybe it would be good for you if Raijin and I gave you some space for a while. I mean, as it is, you're already starting to," she paused as if about to utter a painful truth, "drift away from us." She drew her knees in closer still. "I wish it weren't happening, but it's obvious that it is."

He appeared to be listening intently, contemplating her words very seriously indeed.

"If we all take some time off, I think that things will eventually go back to normal between all of us," she continued. "Once you're apart from us, you'll have some time to yourself to th9ink things over and figure out if you miss having us around. That's what Raijin thinks, and I think he's right."

There was the strangest expression upon his face. He looked as if he wanted to laugh, but his gaze was far too serious to suggest it.

And, leaning in, he picked a single snowflake out of her hair. And that was when he finally smiled, if only just a little.

Feeling uncomfortable, she lifted her hand to brush his away, but for a moment, their hands touched.

He suddenly stood up, beckoning with his hand for her to do the same. She got to her feet without assistance.

"Go on ahead of me so we don't run into each other," he said.

Her eyebrows knitted. "… So that's it? You're just walking away, no questions asked?"

He shook his head. "There's nothing to ask. I understand."

She nodded once and took a step back.

"You'd better come back eventually, though, okay?"

"Yeah, don't worry about me," he assured her. And suddenly, the right words to say disappeared in the silence that hung between them, strangely separating them.

"I'll… I'll see you soon," he finally added.

_Soon. _Vague at best. But there was no need to elaborate. Somehow, they both understood perfectly why it was better, in this circumstance, to lie by not saying any more than that. She knew that "soon" was a lie—they might very well be parting for several years on end—but sometimes lying was really just easier, if only to herself.

"Soon…."

And before she could change her mind and ask him to come back, he was already gone.

* * *

The phone rang from atop the bed. Selphie looked to Fujin for silent advice; Fujin nodded. 

"S-Selphie here."

"_Are you still getting a feed from our camcorder?" _Zell asked.

"Uh…."

Fujin stood up, brushing her tears away as she did so. She promptly left to go to the other room through the open doorway.

"Well, I haven't been getting any footage… my computer shut down just a minute or two ago," she explained carefully.

"_Okay… are you turning it on right now, then?"_

"Yes, yes, hang on a sec."

The laptop didn't respond at all.

"My laptop's dead," she murmured.

Zell chuckled a little on the other end. _"Eh, it's just as well, 'cause I sorta smashed up the camcorder."_

"You _what_?" Selphie sat up quickly. "But is your tape still okay?"

"Yeah, it's okay. Hey, what are you—" 

"_Did anything happen to you guys?" _Squall asked quickly. _"Did anybody show up in the room?"_

Selphie got to her feet and found Fujin in the adjacent hotel room, kneeling next to Rinoa, who was still unconscious. Selphie opened her mouth to ask where Rinoa had been, but Fujin answered by pointing to the closet.

"Squall's asking if anything happened," Selphie hissed urgently. "That means those people ran into Squall and Zell before they came here, right?"

Fujin paused. "Just—Just say that everything's fine," she decided. "There's no need to worry them."

"We're all okay," Selphie told him, "but I don't know where the intruders went—"

"Make sure they don't come back here until they finish their job!" Fujin hissed back.

"_Okay_!Look, just keep on doing what you were doing, and you don't need to come up to check on us."

"… _Are you sure?" _ He sounded unconvinced.

"We're fine, nobody's hurt…."

"_Esuna_!"Fujin said, and Raijin softened back into flesh.

"And… yeah, nothing to worry about."

* * *

He trudged on through the will grasses without bothering to take in the scenery. He wanted to move as quickly as possible, and he had to do it in broad daylight: time was now more important than stealth. 

A quick burst of wind buffeted his face; he looked up.

"Where are you going?" Her voice shook with ill-disguised rage. Her reddish-blonde head shone brightly under the midday sunlight.

"To Esthar," he replied matter-of-factly. He did not seem surprised to see her.

"_Why_?"

"… To find Ellone."

"_And_?" she shrieked. "You're not supposed to be in contact with these people; you're not even supposed to _be _here!"

"_Yeah_? Well, I can explain, so will you _shut up _and let me talk?"

She shot him a very filthy, disapproving look and crossed her arms over her chest.

"Okay," he began, "I didn't intend to go anywhere else. Uh, _someone_… kidnapped me and brought me here with her."

"'Brought me with her'? Who's the 'she'?" she asked sharply.

He exhaled slowly. "She didn't say, but I think I have some idea of who she might be."

"And _she's _the one who brought you here?"

He scrutinized her carefully.

"What, you don't believe me?"

She avoided his gaze. "I don't know what I'm supposed to believe anymore," she muttered wearily. "Think about what just happened, Kaze. You told me that somebody trashed the Sorceress Memorial, that you were going to go see if it was safe—"

He stared back at her, the most wretched, painful expression upon his face.

"A-At first, I thought it might've been you staging a break-in so you could take it away…" she mumbled, quickly turning pink when she realized how mistrusting she had been.

He took a deep breath. "When I arrived, she was already waiting for me. And then she took me here and left. I can't get out of here without Ellone. And… that's why I'm going to Esthar."

She nodded once, then looked up again. "But can I ask one thing?"

"Yeah?"

"Why did you do it?"

He broke eye contact, realizing what she was trying to do.

"You did it just now, before you started walking here, didn't you?" She was no longer scolding; perhaps it was resignation?

"I'd rather it was me who'd tell her, rather than letting her find out by some accident."

She sighed heavily, apparently accepting his reason.

"You know… she went to Rinoa. And asked her for help." Her voice sounded cold and brittle. "That was a long time ago, when she did that, but in this time period, it only happened recently."

His head lifted the slightest bit. "We're not thinking about the same person anymore, are we?"

"I know we're not. But you know who I'm talking about _now_, don't you?"

"… Yes."

"So, did you run into Rinoa at all?" she asked.

He shook his head.

"If the transition had been any greater," she added, "Rinoa would have died."

There was a horror-filled silence.

"'Transition'?" he nearly whispered.

"But I had to end it before things went too far."

Finally, he turned around to fully face her. "End it _how_?"

* * *

_**Alternate World: Glass Wings (Part II)**_

The Odine… Bangle…? 

"No," the girl said suddenly. She released Rinoa's arm gently; the fingernail marks left behind began to bleed.

Rinoa stared.

"Well, go!" the girl shouted, flapping her arms. "Get it and put it on!"

_W-What? _Her mouth hung open, and her other hand was wrapped around the fingernail wounds.

"Agh… she's not… thinking rationally right now. She's scared. But don't think too badly of her. Put it on, it'll a-artificially suppress your brain waves and she won't have access to you anymore. _Okay_?"

She grabbed Rinoa's wrist and pried her fingers away, exposing the fingernail marks. "You think _this _is all in your head? It's _all _real, I'm telling you! Everything that happens here affects the real world!"

The girl fell to her knees.

_But who _are _you? You're a different person?_

"I can't explain it," she snapped. "But after you put it on, you'll probably black out. So be prepared, all right? But I don't think you'll die," she was careful to add. "I don't know exactly how, but you _will _wake up!"

Rinoa's gaze was steady and clear. _And how are you so sure of that?_

The girl began to laugh.

"Come on, Rinoa. Do you really think that Squall would allow that to happen so easily?"

…

_So I'll fall asleep_, she thought. The Odine Bangle was cupped in her palms. Even as the moments ticked by, the pain in her head began to mount.

I don't know what to do! Why should I believe either of them? 

"_Do you really think that Squall would allow that to happen so easily?"_

She turned her back on Selphie's bedside dresser. If she was found in Selphie's room, then nobody would realize that she would somehow need Squall's help to wake up. But if she were in Squall's room, then it would only bolster the concerns she had expressed to Dr. Kadowaki earlier that very same day.

"What a coincidence!" the girl inside her head exclaimed.

Rinoa rendered Selphie's door intangible and slipped through it.

"How so?" the "other" girl asked.

"We're not so different at all," she mused to who was supposedly her other self. "_You _want to suppress her brain waves; _I _want to suppress my powers, and you've just told both of us how to do it all."

There was nobody in the hallway. She broke into a run, but stumbled; she felt increasingly dizzy.

"Coincidence," said the other girl, her voice cold. "Got it? We're separate entities. I know you don't want that to change."

She passed through the door to Squall's dormitory with a single step. If ever there had been a time that she wanted him to be able to read her mind, it was at this very moment.

As she slid the Bangle onto her wrist, her wings were rent apart, shattering like glass. She hadn't even realized they were there, a part of her that had followed her into the real world.

The nearly identical voices inside her head had ceased abruptly. Reminded of the other girl's words, she held her arm up to glance at it in her last moment of consciousness.

"Everything that happens here affects the real world!" 

Bloody, half-moon fingernail marks blighted her forearm, the shadow of something much more sinister.

* * *

The phone rang. 

"Balamb Garden, SeeD special forces, this is Headmaster Cid speaking," he rattled off.

"_Hello, Headmaster," _a pleasant female voice replied. _"My name is Shizuka, and I'm calling on behalf of Galbadia Garden."_

Cid compulsively sat up a little straighter in his char. "Oh, I don't believe I've spoken with you before."

Shizuka cleared her throat. _"Yes, about that. My sources tell me that Balamb Garden has Irvine Kinneas, two messengers, and three SeeDs deployed in Deling City at this time. Correct?"_

"Yes." Rinoa had not been included, which was good news: nobody had found out where she was.

"Forgive me for jumping to conclusions, but am I also correct in assuming that the two messengers in question are Fujin and Raijin?" 

He nodded. "Also correct."

On the other end of the line, Shizuka took a deep breath. _"Is it possible for you to send them to Galbadia Garden as soon as possible for questioning? I'm afraid they must show up in person."_

He leaned back in his chair. "Well… may I ask what this is about?"

"You've heard the rumors about Seifer being in Trabia?" 

"Yes." Laguna had told him this before he had left with Ellone.

"_Well, if Fujin and Raijin can come in and confirm something with us, then you and I will know whether those rumors are true."_


	8. A Feather with a Beating Heart

"Now, you can appreciate the extent of his injuries, I hope?" the Galbadian field doctor asked testily. "A thirty-foot fall…." He shook his head. "It'll take a while for him to recover, at any rate. Even after using recovery magic."

Squall and Zell both nodded, feeling subdued.

"But considering you lost all your cameras at around noontime, you guys did a good job!" He grinned. "Just between us three, how do you think it went? How did we do?"

"A hell of a lot better than I expected," Squall muttered, unable to suppress a grin himself. As soon as he did grin, however, he felt guilty for doing so.

"Well, can you help him recover?" Zell asked anxiously.

The young doctor ran a hand through his brutally short hair, looking pensive.

"He's being transferred to the infirmary in Galbadia Garden as we speak," he began. "Oh, don't worry, your headmaster already gave the go-ahead," he added hastily. "Galbadia's still got most of his paperwork anyway, it's closer, and it's got a bigger staff."

…

"Well," Selphie decided, "since Fujin and Raijin have to go there anyway, and they have to bring Rinoa," she motioned towards the bed Rinoa was lying down on, "and Squall's gotta stick with Rinoa, we should all be going."

Zell raised his eyebrows. "You _could _keep it simple and just say that we only have one Ragnarok."

She rolled her eyes.

"You know," Fujin murmured quietly, "if we could just get Rinoa here to wake up, she might be able to heal Irvine a lot faster."

Aboard the Ragnarok fifteen minutes later, however, they still hadn't figured out how to wake Rinoa.

"Maybe we'll get somewhere if you could actually tell us what happened to her in the first place," Zell growled irritably.

"Huh? _Oh_!" Fujin grinned sheepishly. "Yes, well…."

Raijin produced the Odine Bangle from his pocket. "She was wearing this when they found her."

Zell yelled out in shock and surprise. "Rinoa showed us that just a couple months ago! She stole it from Caraway's room and said she was gonna… get Edea to wear it." His face grew pale. "But why would she put that on herself? She could've killed herself!"

"She might not have had a choice," Squall supplied darkly.

"Don't worry," a young woman's voice spoke clearly.

_Ellone? Is that you?_

He blacked out and saw nothing.

"I can bring her back," Ellone told him, "but I'll need to get inside her thoughts directly. So put that Odine Bangle back on her wrist, okay? I'll be waiting…."

"_Squall_?"

He blinked a few times, readjusting to the Ragnarok's interior and three worried faces pressing in on him.

"That was Ellone," he said, reaching for the Bangle on the floor. "She knows how to help Rinoa, but I'll have to put this back on."

"_Squall_!" Zell exclaimed in horror. "What the—"

Peering down into Rinoa's sleeping face, Squall thought bitterly, _The first time should've been the last._

…

**_Alternate World: Distant_**

Ellone's feet lightly touched the ground. She stood up straight, pulling her shawl tightly around her.

"What a beautiful place," she sighed, gazing all around her at the flower petals swaying sleepily in the wind's embrace. "I can see why you like it here."

He was still kneeling beside Rinoa, who had the Bangle on again. And, miraculously, she began to stir. He jerked his head up: for a few moments, he thought that he had seen Ellone's eyes glaze over.

"She's all right," Ellone murmured, now herself again. "But… I need to speak to you privately before I can let you two go. Is that all right?"

He nodded.

Ellone sniffed, just a little bit, then let her gaze wander once more.

"This isn't coming directly from me," she began. "This is from somebody who cares a lot about you both, somebody who's watching over you." She smiled in understanding. "I can't say exactly who."

_Okay._

She started crossing the expanse of ground separating them, coming closer, ever closer. He hadn't even realized how far away they were. Stopping right in front of him, she met his gaze and didn't break the connection.

"But before that, I want you to promise… to never return to this place again."

… _I don't understand._

She paused to think.

"It's dangerous for her here because as you can see…" she motioned towards the sleeping Rinoa, "time does not flow normally here."

_But how is this any more dangerous for her than it is for anyone else?_

Her very face exuded a soft, indescribable calm.

"Because this is what she wanted ever since she met you," she said.

* * *

**_Alternate World: Shadows and Air_**

"'Love, friendship, and courage'! Show 'em what you got!"

Straining to lift his head, he caught a glimpse of Laguna stepping out of the door, and Ellone right at his heels, her green shawl flying after her.

And then it was dark, dark and bleak all around. He could feel himself falling, through the air and through his thoughts. He could neither breathe nor move; some strange force pressed down upon him, stopping his breath, immobilizing him.

"Wake up."

He gasped for breath as he hit the ground, the impact forcing air into his lungs.

It was her.

"Tell me," Ultimecia asked him. "The End is approaching fast. Are you willing to join me… one last time?"

_What is this? _He thought to himself, struggling to his feet. _What kind of question is this?_

He avoided her gaze as he thought. What could happen depending on his decision?

The truth was that his heart was no longer into doing what she was asking of him now. He had no wish for Squall to die at her hands—after all, his two best friends had defected over to him and placed everything in Squall's hands. If Squall lost, then it would mean the end of everyone else.

But was that all there was to it? No. He knew himself too well. Or so he thought.

"_I know you're not like that!" _she had said.

How did she know? How had she managed to understand him so well? Just envisioning her face as she had pleaded perplexed him, yet made perfect sense to him as well.

_Don't be sad_, he said to the Rinoa inside his head. _You were right, after all._

The terrible, suffocating feeling left him at once. He felt no more pain.

"You have freed yourself," Ultimecia concluded with a slight nod. "It was your choice, and I will not stand in your way." She slowly turned her back on him. "Good-bye… my Knight."

He did not try to stop her as she left his presence for the very last time. He felt no pain from this physical separation; an even greater pain had eclipsed it, stealing over him, a pain that said, "You've made your choice, and there's no turning back." He wasn't sure how he knew so clearly and so surely at that moment, but nevertheless, he knew what had happened: she was dead. And she had accepted his decision; she would never come back to him to see him ever again.

The darkness stayed with him, neither oppressing him nor freeing him. It was everywhere around him and everywhere inside him all at once.

_Is it over? _he thought. _Is this The End?_

"Think," he muttered aloud to himself. "I need to think."

So this is Time Compression. What will happen to the others if I don't make it out of here alive? With Ultimecia dead….

He was left as head of the entire country of Galbadia, as well as Headmaster of Galbadia Garden. He had no intention of reclaiming those positions, and he doubted that the Galbadians would be very happy at his return, anyway. But, perhaps he still had some influence in how things would play out….

If he did manage to survive and return to the real world, he was sure that his reappearance would very well throw the world into chaos. During his time as Ultimecia's Knight, he had enslaved the Galbadians and sent a Lunar Cry upon the Estharians using their own technology. He saw already that he would have nothing and nobody to turn to.

"Then it's time for me to disappear." At once, he hated himself for saying it: disappearing meant abandoning Fujin and Raijin and entrusting them to others. But a clean break form them was necessary, if only for their safety. If either of them ever found out where he was, they might be kidnapped and tortured into revealing what they knew. It was far better if they knew nothing to begin with.

But… how long would it take? He knew he was being weak by wishing it, but he could see nobody and nothing for miles in all directions, and it would be nice, so nice, if Fujin or Raijin were there, and if he could see them again, just this once, to tell them how sorry he was….

The air suddenly grew cold, cast over by a chill wind. He wasn't sure what had prompted it at first, but then he saw a lone snowflake float down out of the shadows overhead. He followed its descent only with his eyes, not lifting his head.

And in the same instant, he heard her voice. A wild, nearly uncontrollable happiness exploded inside him, keeping him warm. The newfound cold meant nothing to him now.

As a conversation took shape, he continued to think, and guard his outward expressions as he did so. This was no ordinary chat between two friends. As he listened and talked, he knew it couldn't be. He hadn't realized it at first, but the longer she stayed, the more obvious it became to him that something inside of hi had wanted to see Fujin and not Raijin….

"Well, I'm just saying…."

_But what am I _really _trying to say? _He watched carefully for her reaction.

"What?" She was starting to become irritable at his long pauses—or was she actually annoyed with him?

"… If you don't agree with me, then you really should go, but… it'd be nice… if you could stay."

He looked away quickly. He didn't want his reaction to influence hers in that way; he wanted her to make her own decision, not to stay just because he wanted her to.

_Nice…. Come on, don't go. Not yet!_

Time Compression was a horrible place to be alone. He felt sure that if he let her leave, then he would e stuck, unable to leave himself.

_I can't abandon the plan, though_, he decided. _We have to split up, and we have to do it here._

"Go on ahead of me so we won't run into each other," he found himself saying. She had to be the one to go first; he would never forgive himself if he left her here all alone.

She frowned concernedly. "… So that's it? You're just walking away, no questions asked?"

_No questions asked? _He laughed inwardly.

He shook his head. "There's nothing to ask." _You'll understand soon enough. _"I understand."

She nodded once and started backing away. "You'd better come back eventually, though, okay?"

"Yeah, don't worry about me."

They had finally reached the good-bye. The silence stood strong, a wall that neither of them wanted to scale.

I have to say something. This is getting awkward.

"I'll… I'll see you soon," he added firmly.

To him, it was not a lie. Thanks to her, he finally did understand: the thing that had saved him would continue to live inside him, keeping him alive. Rinoa, Fujin, Raijin…. He would cling to them all, keeping them alive inside his head, where they would never leave him.

* * *

_**Alternate World: Distant (Part II)**_

Using their eye contact, she had bridged the gap between her memories and Squall's.

"_I don't want the future," _Rinoa had said to him. _"I just want to stay here with you."_

"You read my mind," Squall murmured incredulously. "And I didn't even realize it!"

Ellone shrugged, grinning mischievously. "Yes," she admitted, "I did."

"… Then that means anybody with that Junction Machine Ellone can read minds," he realized.

"Yes. So she should use that Odine Bangle carefully. I'm assuming you know the reason she fell into a coma?"

He nodded. "Fujin and Raijin told me."

She did not reply to this; she merely smiled a little, to herself more than to him.

"He's all right," she murmured quietly.

"Who is?"

"Tell them—Fujin and Rajin—tell them that Seifer's all right. Will you do that for me?"

He wanted to know more—where Seifer was now, what he was doing, if Ellone had actually talked with him—but her expression was set and closed to further discussion.

"Okay. I will."

Ellone's eyes glazed over a second time, and Rinoa began to move. When she realized where she was, she got to her feet at once.

"How did we get here?" she demanded hastily. A slight weight pulled on her left wrist. She glanced down at it and noticed that she was wearing the Odine Bangle.

"Is this part of my coma?"

For a moment, no one spoke. Ellone only smiled politely, while Squall looked scandalized.

"Well, you're in my world now, so you and Squall are a part of _my _coma," Ellone laughed.

Rinoa nodded slowly, carefully digesting this. She noticed that Squall was staring at her, no doubt desperate to say something out loud, but he still said nothing.

"Hey wait. One more thing before I let you two go," Ellone added, seemingly oblivious to the way Squall and Rinoa were both staring at each other. "Rinoa, wouldn't you say, just for fun, that Squall and Seifer have more in common than they'd like to admit?"

Squall opened his mouth to speak, but Ellone was too quick for him. With one last of her many enigmatic smiles, their surroundings imploded and Squall and Rinoa found themselves staring up at the Ragnarok's ceiling.

"Rinoa!"

Zell, Fujin, and Raijin swarmed around them both, helping Rinoa into a sitting position, firing off questions.

Squall, however, did not even smile.

"'Is this part of my coma?'" he quoted expectantly. "Did you know that this was going to happen to you?"

A combination of guilt and regret pulled her smile into a frown.

"I put myself into the coma," she confessed.

Squall slowly got to his feet, not taking his eyes off her; Rinoa scrambled to stand as well.

"Why?"

She remembered the sinister, spreading pain inside her head, the two girls fighting to suppress each other, the first girl's request, the second girl's warnings.

"Well, to keep it simple… I was possessed by two different people at the same time."

Several people opened their mouths to speak, but she held up a hand to silence them all.

"They were both girls," she added somewhat unnecessarily. Nobody seemed to think that this detail mattered more than the others: after all, only sorceresses could get inside each other's minds. "But it was really weird… I only saw one person, and I was talking to her, but two people were speaking through her."

No one interrupted this time, but when Rinoa did not elaborate further, Fujin spoke up.

"So these two sorceresses were both possessing the same girl and using her to possess you? Or was it just the sorceress and the person possessing her who were talking to you?"

"… I don't know…."

Nobody seemed sure what to make of this, but they didn't have much time to think on it. They felt the Ragnarok slow and descend smoothly, and, a few moments later, saw Selphie coming down the lift to join them.

* * *

The name etched upon the marble guided her eyes down to his left hand. It had been almost twenty years, but even though he didn't have time to live inside his memories, he couldn't bear to take the ring off. 

"Uncle Laguna!"

He smiled as soon as he heard her voice, and he turned around to greet her with a wave of his own. He blinked, and Raine's smiling face faded away into one of his many hidden corners inside his head. Kiros and Ward were mere shimmers poised at the top of the hill, respectfully keeping their distance.

Ellone took her time to stroll down the slope, gazing all around at the flower petals swirling through the air. He noted to himself that she didn't get many opportunities to come outside.

Joining him, she stared at the words on the tombstone for a few minutes, reliving the few memories of Raine that she could still remember clearly. She lamented inwardly that it was harder and harder to retrieve them; until only a week or so ago, the same had been true of her only memories of Laguna. It was frightening to think that one day, everything could very well disappear again. Her parents faded out of her life so quickly, and the same with Raine, Laguna, Squall, and everyone else from the orphanage. But everyone who hadn't died had come back, as if without death separating them, they were all slowly, inevitably drawn back together by a mysterious bond that just would not disappear.


	9. Under Fate's Wings

Galbadia Garden, like Balamb Garden, had become, if possible, even quieter than before it had been used as Edea's base.

"I guess even more people must've dropped out of here," Selphie mused aloud. Zell shook his head sadly but said nothing.

"It _is _pretty depressing to think about," Squall admitted with a shrug. He had been keeping an eye on Fujin and Raijin ever since they had entered the Garden: their eyes had been wandering far and wide, taking in every single detail.

But he had been watching Rinoa, too. She seemed to be doing absolutely fine, although Selphie's speedy explanation didn't seem to have put her mind entirely at ease.

They were standing in front of the doors to what they assumed was the headmaster's office. He broke the silence by knocking.

Within a few seconds, the doors swung wide open to reveal a smart-looking girl about their age. She had her shiny black hair up in a French braid, and she was wearing the familiar blue Garden uniform. When she caught sight of them, she smiled pleasantly.

"Good! Come on in, all of you," she told them, beckoning with her hand.

Galbadia Garden's office was unlike any Garden office they had ever seen or imagined. Instead of Balamb Garden's bare minimum, one small room with a chair and a messy desk hidden away where it could be easily missed, there were six desks arranged in two groups of three. The groups were both semicircles facing the doors, with one group nearer to the doors than the other behind it. There was a telephone on each desk; since there were no modern telephone manufacturers, the phones were mismatched and quite old, dug up from before the radio interference.

At their arrival, the five people remaining in their desks looked up from their work. They, too, were in the Garden uniform.

"My name is Shizuka," she said, shaking everybody's hands. "And these," she indicated her peers at the desks, "are my fellow members of the Galbadia Garden Student Committee."

"You don't have a headmaster or headmistress?" Squall asked, clearly surprised.

She smiled again, seeing the quiet surprise creep across their faces. "No. The Student Committee is run by, well, the students themselves. All of us in the Committee have graduated, so there's no schoolwork or testing we have to balance. This is our job."

After a moment's silence, Fujin cleared her throat.

"Isn't there something ya need to show us?" Raijin asked.

She nodded and beckoned for them to follow. "You may all come and hear this, it doesn't have to be just you two. And what are you staring at?" she snapped over her shoulder. The other Committee members hastily lowered their eyes to the various papers and files scattered across their desks. She led Squall and the others into the side room that would have been Cid's office had they been in Balamb Garden, and closed the door behind her.

She exhaled heavily. "Okay."

Suddenly, there was a knock at the door; she crossed the room in a few swift strides and opened it.

Another girl, this time with chin-length light brown hair, held out an envelope. Shizuka stared at the return address for a few moments, then gave her a darkly significant look.

"Do you know anything besides what's in this envelope?"

The girl nodded.

"I'd like you to join us for this, then." She turned to address everyone in the room. "I'd like you all to meet Henrietta."

Henrietta briefly shook everyone's hands, then took up a seat next to the vacated desk. Shizuka slid out a desk drawer and retrieved a second envelope, which she passed to Raijin.

He turned the envelope over in his hands, his expression apprehensive. It had no return address. He glanced up at his sister standing beside him, then lifted the flap.

"Why is the seal broken?" Fujin asked sharply.

"The letter is addressed to Galbadia Garden," Shizuka explained. "The message inside was originally intended for us, of course."

Fujin deliberated this for a few moments, then squeezed in close enough to read it as well.

"That's his handwriting _and _his signature," Raijin concluded. He handed the letter to Fujin, apparently satisfied.

"You may read it aloud, Fujin," Shizuka told her.

_To Whom It May Concern:_

_The Sorceress Ultimecia is now dead. As her former Knight and second-in-command, I am now the Imperial Dictator of the Republic of Galbadia, as well as head of all branches of the Galbadian military and de facto Headmaster of Galbadia Garden. This is a direct order._

_I no longer wish to hold these titles._

_I leave the task of finding a new president to all of Galbadia's citizens; the Galbadian military is to assist them in any way possible._

_Galbadia Garden's remaining students should form a Student Committee of six members in the absence of a headmaster. To be eligible to serve, one must be a graduate of Galbadia Garden._

_Lastly, to prevent the Galbadian military or any other political faction from forcing a candidate through the election process, as has been done in the past, I ask Galbadia Garden's aforementioned Student Committee to contact Balamb Garden and to place a request for a three- to five-member electoral commission. This commission is to oversee the election process and to keep its own record of all votes submitted._

_Many thanks in advance for complying with these instructions._

_Seifer Almasy_

The moments of shocked silence extended into minutes. There was really no need to say anything; the letter answered it all.

"So," Fujin finally muttered, "you've all been working for Seifer this entire time."

"Who delivered this letter to Galbadia Garden?" Raijin asked.

Henrietta spoke up. "A messenger from Trabia Garden had to cross the Horizon Bridge to deliver it. And only a few minutes before you arrived, a second messenger delivered," she took the letter from Shizuka, "this. From Esthar."

* * *

They had warned him about the barrier, but he was ready. He kept walking as if nothing was wrong, hugging the edge of the barrier as he climbed little rocky hillocks and valleys. It was like staring through glass in a zoo; the creatures on the other side didn't give him a second glance. 

And then, the rapid footfalls of Estharian soldiers rose up from the descending bank up ahead, behind him, all around. He pulled out a small glass vial, opened it, and drank everything inside it.

The soldiers on the south side of the mountain couldn't stop him. He was a ghostly blur that couldn't be harmed, flying through their ranks as if winged. They chased him, attacked him relentlessly, but although he hadn't even drawn his weapon, he hadn't needed to. He passed through the city limits just as easily as their bullets and slashes had passed through his body, and he was safe.

* * *

Was she imagining this, or had security inside and around the Presidential Palace suddenly doubled in strength? 

She was in a guest bedroom that would soon become hers. Everybody around her was busy, much too busy to talk. What was going on?

There was a quiet knocking on the door.

"Come in," she said.

Kiros stepped inside quietly and closed the door behind him just as quietly.

"Something's happened, as you may have guessed," he began right away. "I'm afraid you and Laguna can no longer leave the Palace until this is resolved."

She rose to her feet. "What's all this about? What's happened?"

"Seifer Almasy just breached our invisible barrier at the city limit," he told her carefully. "We don't know why he's here, but we've increased security as an extra precaution."

She nodded. "I understand."

He saluted and turned to excuse himself, but stopped with his hand already on the doorknob.

"I know you knew him when you were younger, but please don't go looking for him. If he is indeed planning on contacting you or Laguna, then it would be best to let him come to us."

For a few moments after he had gone, she stared at the closed door; it suddenly emitted a soft click. She was locked in.

She said to the room at large, "I do hope you know what you're doing, Seifer."

* * *

They didn't know whether he intended to break in, and they had to be on the lookout around the clock in case they were right. Eventually, they would get tired; they would allow an opening to appear. That would be his chance. 

But until that chance came, he would need information.

* * *

Cid nodded absentmindedly while he mulled over their words. 

"Well, you all _seem _to be healthy, and Rinoa is even conscious now, but I still want all of you to report to Dr. Kadowaki before going to bed." He scratched his head. "Contact with people from the future should definitely not be taken lightly, and we know next to nothing about these kinds of encounters."

Twenty-five minutes later, Dr. Kadowaki pieced Fujin's and Selphie's separate stories together in her head as best she could.

"But what is it that he told you while you were alone with him?" Dr. Kadowaki pressed Fujin. "It seems to have been quite important. Is it something that I must know? Is it something that could help Selphie if we knew what it is?"

Fujin shook her head.

She sighed reluctantly. "So, after giving you this information you are withholding from me, he injected you with an unknown chemical, and judging from what he told you, this chemical will cause you to forget that information in thirty days. Correct?"

Fujin nodded this time.

"He then injected Selphie with a similar chemical that immediately erased all memory of the conversation she overheard between you and that man. Does that make sense?"

She nodded again. "Did you tell Selphie that her memory's been erased?"

"I am only repeating your view of what happened. I didn't tell you any details of her experience, and likewise, I didn't know your side of the story because I spoke with Selphie first," she declared with finality. She crossed the room and exited, then returned with Selphie a moment later. Seeing her close-up once again, Fujin was struck by how tired Selphie looked. She did not smile, and her eyes didn't focus on any one object in the room.

"Now before I let you go," Dr. Kadowaki began, "I'd like a blood sample from each of you, and I'd like _you_," she pointed at Selphie, who looked up in surprise, "to spend nights in the infirmary until I discharge you."

When she had collected enough blood from each of them, Fujin was dismissed. One by one, the others came in, then came out and returned to their dorms until only Rinoa was left.

But Fujin was still waiting outside, waiting for Rinoa to come out, but she didn't. Only when Dr. Kadowaki reemerged and asked why she was still there did she finally go back to her room.

* * *

Two days later, he decided to do it. He felt sure that if he waited any longer, some unforeseen development would make it impossible to proceed. 

She had no idea what time it was, and it didn't matter to her either way. She was still restless; definitely _not _sleepy.

And suddenly, her bedroom window shattered. She leapt to her feet, looking around wildly for the source. A man with blonde hair and a gray trench coat lay face down on the floor.

Seifer quickly got to his feet. There were small cuts on his forehead where he had bashed through the window—or perhaps he had soared right through the glass?

"I need to talk to you!" he shouted over the blare of alarm bells traveling through the whole Palace. "You have to buy us time!"

Ellone's gaze relaxed; the alarms stopped, and so did the clock on the wall.

"Take as long as you must," she said, a tiny smile upon her lips.

His eyes strayed to the frozen wall clock.

"Congratulations," she said.

"W-_What_?"

She smiled more widely. "Your wish came true, didn't it? Now you have the time to compose your thoughts."

He regarded her momentarily with an expression of incredulity upon his face.

"How did you know?"

"I can just tell." She sat down on the edge of her bed. "What would you like to talk about?"

In truth, she had stolen time for both of them, not just for him. Out of them all, she had been most worried about Seifer. She should have been looking out for him as well, but she had shown favoritism towards Squall. She should have made sure that Seifer wouldn't get sucked into Time Compression, that he would be safe: but she had forgotten about him.

A part of her wanted to ask what he had been up to, and why he had gone to Trabia. But he had gone to so much trouble to find her: he deserved answers more than she did.

"I need you to send messages to people for me. I can't do it myself without the messages being intercepted—"

"I understand," she told him at once. "What are the messages?"

For the briefest moment, a shadow passed over his features.

"First… what exactly is Time Compression? I mean… how does it fit in with the real world world?"

She frowned. "The 'real world'… if you're referring to the state where time flows normally, then calling it the 'real world' would make sense, but I'm afraid it's no more or less real than the state of Time Compression. All of these 'alternate worlds,' where time flows differently," she gestured around the frozen room, "or even not at all, are simply versions of the 'real world.' Without our 'real world,' there would be nothing to modify to create Time Compression, you see?"

"Is that the only way they're connected, though? Everything just branches out from the real world and becomes a separate world in itself?"

She shook her head at once. "As I said, they're all real, and they're all a part of the real world. The real world and the alternate worlds all influence each other."

He thought back to his experience in Time Compression, who he had met, and why.

"You wondered if what you experienced in Time Compression was real," she declared shrewdly.

He nodded. "So it _was _real? And everyone I met when I was there, they were all real, too, right?"

"They seemed real to you, didn't they? They felt real?"

"That doesn't necessarily mean that they _were _real, though."

"But they were!" she insisted, and her eyes twinkled knowingly as she spoke. "They materialized before you and became a part of your reality because you wanted them to! That was how their real selves were able to contact you! If you had wanted them to be mere illusions to comfort you, then that is what they would have been."

A memory surfaced and overtook his physical vision: that of Rinoa struggling against him as he pushed her toward Adel.

"For example," Ellone said, "there's this. You saw this. It's just a memory of her, but you saw it because you wanted to understand what she had been trying to tell you. You had no desire to confront her personally at the time." She paused to think over her next words. "She _was _in Time Compression, too, you know. But even if you had wanted to see her, she wouldn't have come, because—"

"—Because she didn't want to see me, either," he finished, his expression painful.

The scene before his mind's eye grew dark, and out of the darkness came….

"But Fujin did," Ellone said quietly. "She wanted to find you, and you wanted to find her.

It had been only a moment, a single, fleeting wish that he was sure could never come true anyway, but by some miracle, it did.

"Just before she came," he recounted slowly, "I thought to myself that I wished Fujin and Raijin were there…"

"And through that little window of loneliness, she was able to find you." She sighed absentmindedly.

"Now, for your messages…"

He seemed to awaken at this reminder. "Make sure Fujin and Raijin know that I'm okay, but…"

* * *

"Make sure Fujin and Raijin know that I'm okay, but… only tell Fujin that I'm coming back." 

"May I ask why you don't want Raijin to know this?"

"… He'll be all right if he doesn't know," he decided. "But I think Fujin needs to know.

"Tell Rinoa that I'm sorry about everything, not being able to help her free Timber. And… make sure Squall takes good care of her." He nodded. "That's all."

Ellone paused to think, looking concerned. "Are you sure? After everything you did to get here—"

"And I'm sorry for getting you involved in this, too. I don't want to make things harder on you… but I had to make sure you'd take care of everyone for me, you know?"

The way he was speaking… it sounded final, almost like his own eulogy. And the calm, composed way he had structured his every word… it was, to her, disturbing.

"You don't need to do this to yourself, Seifer. I can speak to Laguna, you can explain everything to him—"

He shook his head firmly.

"Then… Then I'll help you escape. I know how to make it work," she offered desperately.

For a few moments, he merely stared at her. And then slowly, confidently, he nodded.

"Good luck," she called after him, and then their 'alternate world' collapsed. The clock started moving, the alarms started screaming, but Seifer continued to stand immobile, watching her face and nothing else.

The door burst open behind him and Estharian soldiers seized him, dragged him slowly backward. He submitted without a fight; in face, he didn't even seem to care that he had been caught.

In his eyes, she saw it: his final message. It was as if he were willing his entire soul into a moment's gaze. She saw desperation, pain, a longing for her to get the message, to understand what he had no time to say.

And she did understand: that gaze perplexed her so because it had not been meant for her, Ellone, and therefore meant nothing to her.

But to Fujin, it meant everything.

And Fujin… Fujin was lost in what she thought could be a dream. Seifer was taken out of sight, and she was left in the spot where her feet had carried her. But it didn't matter if it was real or not. She wanted so badly for it to be real, and if it mattered to her so much, then that was enough to bring it to life, if only inside her head.

Still asleep, she began to cry.


	10. No Turning Back

"In_jail_?"

Henrietta nodded. "In Esthar, yes. That is the most recent news I have."

Shizuka crossed her arms over her chest. "And since you have confirmed for us that this letter is indeed from Seifer, then we can only conclude that he traveled from Trabia, south through the Trabian Mountains, and into Esthar."

A slow grin crept up Zell's face. Seifer had allowed himself to be captured, he was sure of it. And he thought that he had figured out just what Seifer was trying to do.

"You realize what this means, don't you?" he asked. "If Esthar contacted _you_, then that means they've broken their vow of silence—"

Squall resolutely elbowed Zell in the ribs to silence him. "Well, if that's all, we'll wrap this up, then," he declared loudly.

Outside the double doors mere moments later, Zell hissed, "What the _hell_was that about?"

"We get it," Squall grumbled stiffly. "Seifer's trying to get Galbadia and Esthar to start communicating by getting them in an argument over him, right? Isn't that what you were trying to say?"

"Well, yeah!" Zell scratched his head as he sighed in frustration. "Galbadia Garden is sympathetic towards him, right? And Esthar—well, it's hard to tell what they were planning on doing to him, but Galbadia's not going to just let them do whatever they want with him if _he's_the reason this whole—Student Committee even exists!"

Squall turned his back on Zell. "If that's his plan, then it's not our business to interfere."

Rinoa squatted down, hugging her knees, and she stared at the carpeting, her gaze distant. "It's really not that hard to believe, though, I mean, he can be pretty reckless sometimes…."

Neither Fujin nor Raijin spoke.

…

When they visited Irvine, he was asleep.

"I feel a little weird, being around him when he's in this condition," Rinoa murmured. "Think I'll take a walk," she declared before turning to leave. However, Selphie could have sworn she had seen Rinoa wink at her.

"And you guys come, too!" Rinoa snapped at the others. "You're supposed to be my bodyguards, remember?"

"Sorry, Rinoa, but I'm not _really_obligated to, uh, 'risk life and limb' for you," Zell laughed.

"A-_hem_."

Selphie grinned at them as they excused themselves.

"They have a huge crush on each other," Rinoa explained quickly to Fujin and Raijin once they were outside.

Back in the infirmary, Selphie pulled up a chair next to Irvine's bed and sat, staring at his sleeping face. He was wearing a hospital gown and a breathing mask; his entire right shoulder area was heavily bandaged, and blood had already begun to seep through the bandages. Other bandages were taped to large spots on the front and right side of his head, and Selphie was shocked to find that whoever had treated him had hacked off about a foot of his ponytail and even shaved sections of hair off to get to the wounds on his head.

_So it was that girl with black hair who attacked you_, she thought. _And then she attacked _me…._Who _was_she?_

After that, she wasn't sure exactly what had happened next. Had the girl in question simply disappeared? Why had Fujin behaved so strangely after that boy had left? She had a reason to be suspicious if what she remembered didn't make sense.

_That Fujin… I guess we were all bound to end up spending more time around her and Raijin, but it's still strange…. We all act like they're old friends, but we actually don't know _anything_about them._

Something had definitely gone on between and that boy. She was absolutely convinced of it. But what could have happened between them that was enough to reduce Fujin to tears?

* * *

"Rinoa!" Selphie hissed into the dark. 

"Mm?" Rinoa replied. Apparently, she was wide-awake as well.

"We gotta talk," she hissed.

Rinoa sighed and slowly sat up in bed.

"You're supposed to be getting some rest," the medic growled irritably from the black swivel chair in the adjacent room.

"What about _you_? Why don't _you_go to bed?" Selphie snapped rudely.

He sprang from his chair and flipped the lights on. Selphie and Rinoa both shielded their eyes with their hands.

"What are you doing? Cut that out!" Selphie whined.

"If you're gonna stay up, you'd might as well do it _right_," he huffed. "I tell you, if I weren't getting paid for this…"

"So anyway," Selphie began loudly, ignoring the rest of his sentence, "you heard most of what happened when we were giving our report to Cid, right? Most of that happened while you were comatose."

"Yeah?" she muttered, her voice low.

They had reached the point in the conversation where fact ended and speculation began. It was troubling that they had arrived there so soon; at any rate, it certainly did not bode well.

"I don't know if this is true or not," Selphie whispered, "but… you know that guy they were talking about? The one who was with that sorceress?"

"Yeah?"

"Well, I think there's something going on between him and Fujin."

"… _What_?" she squeaked. "Isn't he supposed to be from the future or something, though?"

"That's just it!" Selphie cried. "It's just not right!"

Rinoa's head slowly tilted to one side. "When you say there's 'something going on' between them… are you suggesting they're—well—_romantically involved_?" she hissed.

"I don't know! Why not?"

She sighed. "That's a really serious accusation, though. And besides, she never even met him before that! It's just so not like her—"

"Look." Selphie leaned in even closer. "I was just outside the door when that guy opened it and saw me. I must have been listening in to their conversation, but I don't remember anything I might've overheard. But," she pointed to the pads of gauze taped to her neck and right arm, "he injected me with something so I'd forget they'd even said anything to each other. He was obviously trying to cover up what had happened by messing with my memory so I couldn't tell anyone else. And Fujin, she didn't even _tell_me what happened, she just played along and pretended that nothing was wrong with me! She obviously wanted to keep it quiet too!"

Rinoa exhaled slowly. "You're right about some of the details not adding up, but I think you should confront her about this a little bit more carefully," she concluded. "Don't be so direct, try not to make an outright accusation or else you'll upset her."

Selphie laughed sarcastically. "_I_ should ask her? She's been avoiding me ever since! She's not gonna give me the opportunity to ask!"

"Well, I suppose _I_… could… get her by herself to ask her for you," she mumbled reluctantly, imagining Fujin's reaction and cringing at the thought. _Why am I letting her back me into a corner like this? What am I _doing_, volunteering for this?_

"_Really_? You _will_?" Selphie asked incredulously. "Geez, thanks!"

_There's no way this can end well…._

* * *

She kept on walking until she could no longer see the limits of the forest, and then she rested in solitude, certain she was alone. She healed the gunshot wound in her head in an instant, the congealed blood flowing afresh back into her skull. She was pleasantly surprised at how compatible she was with this new one. It had been foolishly on display, equipped with everything she needed, and it fit her so, so well…. 

And then he had come. There had been something special about that young man who had tried to interfere. But he was much too indecisive. He didn't know what he valued most because he valued too many things. He couldn't decide what he wanted to save most, or what he was willing to destroy to save them. Far too complex to make a good Knight for her, she thought. It could never work; there was too much bitterness between them.

* * *

"Let's just go back," she pleaded. "I have a headache and we shouldn't be here. You don't need Ellone, I can bring you back with me." 

The wind blew gently through his hair.

"You know we can't go back." His expression hardened. "What happened back there is irreversible."

"But it's where we belong! And that's why we need to return!" she cried, her eyes bright with tears.

He shook his head. "Think about what we did. We don't belong anywhere anymore. We should go somewhere where everyone will just forget about us."

Understanding crept slowly over her face, which she clutched with her hands. "Think about what you're saying—what could happen—"

"I already have. That's what I think we should do now." He knelt down and absently swatted the tall grasses with his palm.

"No," she moaned, her voice shaking. "We'd be fulfilling everything that's brought us to this point—"

"And someone has to do it," he declared, fighting to suppress all the other things he wanted to say. "What about Rinoa? We can save her if we go there! She's suffered enough for me."

"But what about _me_?" she sobbed. "You actually want it to be _me_? You're going to sacrifice me just for her?"

"… You… are already dying," he forced out with great difficulty. "But I'm still here with you, aren't I?"

She was crying fully now, and she was making no effort to stop. He stood and held her close, as gently as he could.

"When we die out there," he whispered in her ear, "it won't hurt. One moment we'll exist, and the next, we'll just disappear. And once we're gone… we'll never feel anything again, it won't matter what we had to go through before."

She sniffed, and slowly, tremulously, she nodded. "Okay. Let's go."

* * *

"H-Hi," Rinoa stammered nervously. "Um… do you have a bit of time to talk?" 

Fujin nodded curtly and led her into her private bedroom. She sat down on a chair and pointed to a spot across from her on the bed. Rinoa sat down facing her, her hands cupped around her knees.

"Yes?" Fujin prompted her.

Rinoa took a deep breath. "Selphie thinks that her memory's been tampered with, and that it involves you," she began.

Fujin scrutinized her carefully. "I see…."

"And last night, you didn't go back to your dorm when you were done with your check-up. You stayed behind. Who were you trying to talk to?"

"You," she answered truthfully. "I wanted to tell you what you're asking me to tell you now."

She frowned confusedly. "Me? _Why_?"

Fujin crossed her arms over her chest, biting at her lip. "Selphie is correct in suspecting that—that boy—was trying to keep something hidden from her. Would he have bothered to modify her memory if it didn't matter whether she found out?"

"So you kept it all secret from Selphie, too, because you trusted that guy's judgment?"

She nodded. "Also, I agree with him. I personally don't believe that Selphie can handle knowing who he is?"

"So who is he to you?" she demanded. "Why is he so much more important to you than he is to any of us?"

Fujin leapt to her feet, and Rinoa did the same.

"Are you _insane_?" Fujin snarled.

"Well, there's definitely _something_going on between you!" Rinoa defended. "I'm right, aren't I?"

"Oh_yeah_? Well, what did you think it was, then? Huh? _Tell me!_"

"I—Okay, you're asking for it—Are you in love with him?"

"_What_?" she screeched. "With _him_?"

Fujin turned her head away from Rinoa and slowly sank down onto the foot of her bed. Rinoa quietly sat back down on the side of the bed, gazing over at Fujin's back.

"No," Fujin said at last.

"… But you care about him."

"Yes, of course I do."

"But are you in love with someone else, then?"

"Do I really need to say who?" she sniffed. "You should know by now. The signs were there, and I'm sure others are suspicious of it, too…."

Rinoa could not think of a single appropriate thing to say.

"But you never saw him," she continued. "You couldn't know who he was."

"… So who was he?" she asked with great apprehension. She somehow knew at that moment that once she knew, she would never, ever be able to forget.

…

"I'm not gonna hurt you. Like she said, you'll survive this encounter no matter what I try to do to you," he said.

"But_why _am I supposed to survive? What is this? A prophecy?" She gave him a hard shove in the chest in an effort to force something out of him, but he avoided eye contact.

Finally, he spoke.

"You really have no idea who I am?"

His voice sounded strange, stiff and just a little unnatural. Perhaps he didn't believe her?

He crossed his arms over his chest.

"This…" and he sighed, "This isn't the way things are supposed to be," he murmured worriedly. "This shouldn't have to happen to you, and I shouldn't have to be the one to do it."

She was staring at him so intently that her eyes were beginning to water. But she didn't dare stop watching, and she didn't dare make a sound.

"What are you talking about?" she finally asked.

"It'll end up much worse if I don't give you information." He sniffed bitterly. "I'm sorry."

He lifted his hand and carefully pulled the cloth away from his face.

When she saw him, she could not suppress a strangled gasp. She had suspected it, even chastised herself for even entertaining the idea for a second, but his face was a confirmation of everything she had been trying to suppress.

It had been right in front of her the whole time, but she did not stop to think, to reason whether it was possible. She remained complacent and in a state of shock when he pulled out a syringe and stuck her in the side of the neck with it. She should have known from the very beginning. After all, how many people in the past, present, or future could have her hair, her skin, and Seifer's features?

"Watch over me," he told her gruffly as he turned to leave, "and good luck."

…

By the time she had finished, tears were streaming down Fujin's face. Rinoa continued to sit, staring at her with an expression of mingled fear and horror.

"Why did you tell me this?" Rinoa whispered almost inaudibly.

"If you tell Selphie," Fujin muttered darkly, "she'll be asking you the same thing."

"Don't—This is hard enough already!"

"_You_think it's hard?" She did not raise her voice this time; this in itself silenced Rinoa. "Do you realize how _hard_it is to love your own son when he himself is responsible for destroying everything about your life you've ever cared about?" She mopped up some of her tears with the end of her sleeve. "Don't you _get it_? It's as if my life is already _over_!" she shouted, her fingers curling up at her neck. "There's almost no uncertainty left: I know I'll see Seifer again, and I know we'll—have a child…" she shook her head miserably, "but at the same time, I just want to—put off the day he comes back because after a certain point, neither of us will be safe. We could both die at any time after that, and—and—" she finished abruptly, unable to continue.

"But there's always a possibility that he's not your son," Rinoa suggested. "And even if he is, you might have other children before him. Or after him…."

To this, Fujin had no answer. Rinoa felt sure that Fujin was absolutely devastated, and having to tell Rinoa had been harder on her still. But she had to know why she had to be dragged into it.

"Why did you tell me this?" Rinoa asked again.

Fujin took a deep breath.

"Selphie's not the only one whose memory was modified," she explained with deliberation, then looked up to stare straight into Rinoa's eyes. "in twenty-nine days, I'll forget that I ever knew who he was."

"But Selphie as good as regained what she forgot because she was able to piece her other memories together and figure out what happened. What if it doesn't work?"

"Selphie didn't have much to go on to begin with. In the end, it didn't matter whether she figured out what he did to her. But she still doesn't remember what she heard." She sighed heavily. "Now me, on the other hand… I just have to trust that the chemical he gave me will be effective," she decided. "But you'll remember for me, whatever I forget. I might even forget this conversation, too—I'm not sure what he meant exactly—but it will be worth it."

Rinoa got to her feet, her face scrunched up.

"You have to promise not to tell Selphie," Fujin begged her. "Or anybody else. _Especially_not Seifer. I'm so sorry I had to tell you, but you're the only one I can trust with this. Please."

Rinoa hung her head.

"There's no need to make me promise," she said. "You already know I won't tell anyone." She took a few steps toward the door, then added, "Thank you… for trusting me with something so important. I'll—I'll do everything I can to help you."

And she left Fujin in her room; once in the hallway, she broke into a run.

Alone once again, Fujin took a deep breath and closed her eyes. And Seifer ws there, reaching out to her through Ellone, to whom she owed so much. Her eyes still shut, she reached out her hand as if to get just a little closer to her mere memory of him.

For now, though, she would much rather be apart from him if it meant knowing, at least for a little longer, that he had to be still alive.


	11. Agitation

The room Ellone, Laguna, Kiros, and Ward were in was Laguna's private office. It was morning, so the sunlight coming in through the window was enough to light the room.

"Okay," Kiros sighed. He sank into the nearest chair and began massaging his temples. "What do we do?"

Ward took up a seat next to Kiros. Laguna kept glancing up at Ellone while he bent over his computer, but Ellone turned her face resolutely away from his.

"I can see you're worried about him," Laguna began, "I know you grew up under the same roof and all—"

"Mm-hmm."

Ward smiled almost imperceptibly.

Laguna shook his head wearily. "Listen to me. You _have_to stop trying to help him. If I weren't your Uncle Laguna, there'd be no way you'd get off scot-free like you did two days ago. We have to make sure we know why he did what he did before we can decide what's gonna happen to him. Think about all the damage he's caused to this city; think about all the people who are dead because of him."

She was not her usual, quiet self. This other bossy Ellone surprised Laguna, but not too much so: after all, she had exhibited similar behavior as a child.

"Please try to empathize with him," she said. "Do you really think he hasn't thought about all of this himself?"

"I'm sure he has, but I'm not the only one making the decision." He glanced up at her again and indicated for her to come closer. She sighed and walked over to him. The computer screen displayed an Internet article with an accompanying photo.

"That's who won the election in Galbadia. They just swore him in last night. We should be hearing from him any minute now."

* * *

"Everything's stored on the laptop, sir," Selphie reported. "I still have to tally up the votes and submit them, though. With everything that happened, I wasn't able to get that done." 

"That's certainly understandable. You did your job as well as you could." Cid raised his eyes to the ceiling for a few moments. "Now, the election was purely for write-in votes. Approximately 100,000 votes cast, and we need that tally as soon as possible…. However, I don't think that any of you are in any condition to stay up counting votes, so I'm going to hand the rest of the task off to Nida and Xu."

…

"Okay, the number of votes match up with what Galbadia got, so… so far it looks valid."

"Good," Nida sighed, leaning back in his chair. "Is there a faster way to do this? Can't we just have the computer search through the entire list and pick out the name with the most votes?"

"I'm working on it, okay?" Xu snapped, tousling her hair in frustration.

"Okay, okay, I just thought that intel was your strong suit."

Xu jabbed at a key and promptly shot up from her seat. "Why were we even assigned to work on this together? It's _way_too late for us to be able to even stand being around each other!"

"_What_?" Nida muttered. "What the—I didn't even _do_anything!"

"That's the _point_!" she snarled. "Why aren't you _doing_anything? You're just—_sitting_there, asking how to do everything and then leaving _me_ to do it!"

Nida calmly stood up as if he hadn't heard and turned the laptop around so the screen faced him. "This is going pretty fast…."

She rolled her eyes. "Whatever then."

The laptop beeped. "Hey, it's done already."

"Who won?" Xu asked, suddenly becoming interested. "What's the name?"

Nida's face hardened.

"I'll handle this," Nida said decisively, not taking his eyes off the screen. "Go get some sleep, Xu."

"But who is it?"

"I said, I'll handle it," he repeated. "If I tell you who it is, you might start acting differently around certain people, and they'll sense it." He glanced up and looked her squarely in the face. "Seriously. Just go."

* * *

Dr. Kadowaki fully emerged from the main room and sat down in the chair next to Selphie's bed. "Now Selphie, you're _absolutely sure _that you feel all right?" she began. 

"I guess," she mumbled, suddenly growing concerned. "Why? What's wrong with me?"

"As you know," she continued, "that young man with blond hair injected you twice. You must've gotten in his way if he deliberately did these things to you to cover up his tracks." She shifted a little in her seat. "Your blood test indicates that your hematocrit—which is your red blood cell count—is normal, but you have extra plasma floating around. My guess is that one or both of those injections was simply to add artificial plasma, but giving you extra plasma serves no purpose… unless there's something in the plasma that could make you sick."

Selphie continued to sit, looking increasingly worried.

The main doors to the infirmary opened and Rinoa stepped inside.

"Hi again—" Rinoa began.

"Wait outside the door, please, Rinoa," Dr. Kadowaki told her softly.

"… Right. Okay," Rinoa said, noticing Selphie's grave expression. Rinoa silently let herself out.

Dr. Kadowaki cleared her throat to break the silence. "Your body will get rid of any excess plasma and increase red blood cell production to balance the levels. Now, Fujin was also injected with something, but only once as opposed to twice with you. Her level of plasma is also elevated, but only slightly, so it makes sense to conclude that she was given plasma also. Going from there…."

Selphie leaned forward to see her face better. "Are you saying that Fujin and I might both get sick?"

She nodded pensively. "Yes, that might happen."

Selphie considered this for a few moments. "… So why am I the only one in the infirmary? Why aren't you monitoring her, too?"

At this, Dr. Kadowaki glared at her in a most disapproving manner. "As resident doctor, I administer care to the most needy first. Fujin only had one injection, whereas you had two, and you were showing immediate symptoms, memory loss and such, so I decided that you were the priority. I have my reasons for monitoring you—_just_you—and that's that," she huffed.

Selphie turned slightly pink. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to question your judgment. That was rude of me to say," she stammered.

"It's quite all right," Dr. Kadowaki muttered nonchalantly, although visibly mollified by the apology. "There's nothing wrong with merely asking questions."

* * *

Seifer was sitting at the plain white table inside the room. His arms were crossed over his chest. Kiros opened the door to the room adjacent, and Laguna, Ward, and Ellone stepped inside before Kiros entered, closing the door behind him. 

Seifer looked up. He could see through the glass at everyone in the room facing him. Ellone gazed blankly back from where she sat.

Laguna settled himself into a chair as well. "Could you please state your name before we begin?"

"Seifer Almasy."

"Seifer, do you know why you are here, and why I am interrogating you personally?"

"… More or less."

"Does this mean you confess to inducing a Lunar Cry intended to hit Esthar City, then later entering the city without clearance, with the intention of breaking into the Presidential Palace?"

"… Yes."

Laguna's eyes flitted over to the scar on Seifer's forehead. He remembered quite vividly seeing a similar scar on Squall….

"Could you explain exactly what you did once you entered the city limits?"

"… Do I really need to say what happened? I mean, isn't the fact that you caught me inside the Presidential Palace explanation enough?"

Laguna leaned back in his chair. Seifer had confessed to being responsible. However, he knew that Seifer was not the only one guilty. But there was no punishing Ultimecia further, and there was no point in punishing a man who didn't fully deserve to be punished.

Ellone had said nothing ever since Laguna showed her the news article. Laguna glanced her way, expecting her to protest in some way, but nothing happened. She didn't even seem to be paying attention.

"Okay, Seifer. We're going to have to hang onto you for a bit longer. How much longer, I don't know." He pulled a few pages of printouts from his back pocket and glanced down at it. "Galbadia_just_swore in a new president. These are some questions he drafted, and I'm gonna ask you them, okay?"

Seifer wasn't paying attention, either; he was staring ahead rather blankly.

_Seifer_, she said. _You don't need to answer those questions. I can get you out of here._

"_It's okay," _he said. _"I want to answer them. They deserve my input."_

"It's really basic stuff," Laguna pressed on. "We're not necessarily going to make you take the blame. We just want to understand what happened."

_So you stay and tell them what you did, and then you go straight back to jail. … Isn't there anyone you want to see? Anyone you want to talk to? They might not let you see them._

"_I already told you not to get involved."_

_Fine. You can answer the questions if you want. But you still have options. You can still do everything on your own terms and not hurt anybody. Go back into Time Compression one last time and go find whoever you need to see._

"_If you send me there, you're not going to get away with it. _No_."_

_You don't need me. You can go by yourself. You're already connected. After you go there once, you never really leave. So you can go whenever you want._

Slowly readjusting to his position in space and inside the room, he blinked.

"I want to see the questions in front of me. I want them in my hand."

Laguna glanced over at the dark-skinned man to his right, then opened a drawer and put the papers into it. On the other side of the glass, Seifer stood up and opened the drawer to retrieve the papers, then sat down while beginning to read.

Seifer peered momentarily over the top edge of the paper. Ellone was watching him with those peculiarly observant eyes. Something he saw in them was oddly unsettling. His eyes drifted back down and he scanned through the questions; they weren't many. Not as many as he thought there would be. After the last question, however, there was the copy of a signature. He squinted to read it more clearly, to make sense of the hurried scribble and figure out who it was—the signature was familiar, but he wanted to be sure, that he wasn't somehow mistaken—

_Here's your signal_, Ellone warned.

Ellone's eyes closed, and she collapsed onto the floor, overturning her chair with a clatter.

"Ellone!" Laguna shouted back, but too late; Seifer had already disappeared, and taken the questions with him.

* * *

_**Alternate World: Addiction**_

He had never felt guiltier in his entire life. He deserved to stay in jail and pay for what he did. If he had known that this was how she had been intending to help him, he would have refused it on the spot. But would that have stopped her?

_What happened back there? What happened to her? Was she faking it, or did she really pass out?_

He opened his eyes but couldn't see anything.

_Maybe she was trying to make a statement? What could she have possibly been trying to say?_

He couldn't help but feel that perhaps, for the fist time, she couldn't think of a single better thing to have done. He suspected that the "better opportunity" he wished she had waited for might not have come at all, anyway. She never did seem to get much sleep—she had been wide awake and dressed in daytime clothing when he had broken though her window, after all—and by the way she was straining herself, she would not last much longer.

He was floating along in a steam of dark matter, with no tangible surroundings. From where he was now, he could go anywhere he wanted to. Where to go exactly, he wasn't sure yet, but he at least knew that he wasn't going to stay here longer than he had to.

He strained his ears, hoping desperately to hear it again: that voice inside his head. It had been so quiet that he almost hadn't heard it, but it had been reassuring in its softness.

_Don't come back here. This is the last time._

But why would he want to come back? … He had said that he wanted more time. And Ellone knew, and she granted that wish not once, but twice.

But it was so obvious why he should leave forever: because it was so dangerous. It must be a miracle that he hadn't died here yet. But despite the great risk, he kept on coming back, and nothing good could come of so many visits. Time Compression was not for those who wanted it, but for those who needed it without wanting it. He had too much to lose now: it wasn't worth it. And he sincerely hoped that he would never need it again.

He chose his destination with deliberation and poured every fiber of his being into wanting to be there.

* * *

Dr. Odine sighed almost rapturously at the comatose Ellone lying on the bed. "Ah, Ellone, it has been too long!" He sighed again. "But," he continued with a grimace, "zis is only part of ze agreement… to make you get better, hm?" 

There was a loud blaring, buzzing sound from overhead. He paused by Ellone's side, then, deciding to answer it, hurried over and opened the door to his laboratory.

It was a messenger. "I have an urgent request from Balamb Garden," he stated at once. "May I come in?"

Dr. Odine let him in and closed the door. "Vat is it?"

"Balamb Garden's resident doctor, Dr. Kadowaki, would like to know if you would be able to make a trip to Balamb Garden. She requests that you come as soon as you are able. You will be compensated."

"'Compensated', eh?" he murmured, his imagination leaping into overdrive. A tidy sum of money from the Balamb Garden Treasury certainly wouldn't hurt—he could always use some extra research funding. Or perhaps it would be something even better—no, he was sure of it. If this was something only he could help them with, then this "something" would most certainly be of interest to him.

"Agreed!" he decided. "Oh, but vat about Ellone? I'm supposed to—"

"The President can arrange for her to come with you."

"Yes…" he murmured again, thinking quickly. "If I can transport most of my equipment, zen it vill vork."

* * *

When Dr. Kadowaki stepped outside the doors to call Rinoa back in, she was surprised to find that Rinoa had left. 

"Hm, I wonder what that was," she muttered before stepping back inside.

"Where's Rinoa?" Selphie asked.

She shrugged. "Guess she took a walk or something. Nothing to get worked up over," she replied. "Although it'd be nice if she were here to keep you company; I didn't mean to worry you with those test results."

Selphie nodded gravely, her face turning a slight shade paler.

The doors suddenly opened again, and Quistis stepped inside.

"I only just heard—why didn't anyone tell me you guys were back?" she demanded.

"They arrived very late last night," Dr. Kadowaki explained firmly.

Selphie, Quistis noticed, was not her usual happy self. She was subdued and quiet, and perhaps even a little bit cross.

"Fujin and Raijin told you what happened to Rinoa, right?" Quistis asked her.

Selphie nodded. Quistis took a deep breath, hoping for the reaction she was expecting.

"Well, your dorm room's involved, too, unfortunately. It's not that bad," she hastened to add, "some of the drawers are pulled out and their contents are a bit scrambled, but none of your things seem to be missing. We didn't touch it, we left everything as we found it."

"That's your room only, Selphie," Dr. Kadowaki added. "Now Squall's, we took photos and cleaned it up. My goodness, what a nightmare that was."

* * *

He was already half-asleep when he reached his room, intending to collapse upon the bed and fall asleep fully clothed. Something crinkled under his feet; someone must have shoved the brown envelope under the doorjamb. 

There were photographs inside. Sifting through them, he could see large, brown, and blotchy stains upon the floor; he was sure it was dried blood. On top of this gruesome brown carpet were many long, slender, white sticks in various sizes, and deep reddish-brown blobs were holding the whole mass together like glue.

_So this must've been where it happened_, he thought, scanning the room carefully. _Wait…._His gunblade case was still propped up against the right-hand-side wall. This was most definitely his room in the photos. Other than the bloody mass upon the ground, however, he could see nothing else out of the ordinary. He was no closer to understanding what had actually happened, or why the people at Garden had reacted the way they had.

It all had worked out so perfectly that he was sure there had been some sort of communication between Rinoa and the people who found her. Had somebody known that Ellone would be able to awaken her while she was wearing that Odine Bangle, and that bringing Rinoa to him would make Ellone's job easier? If so, then the even smaller details could have been intentional as well. For example, after all Cid's efforts to keep them hidden, why were Fujin and Raijin, of all people, the ones sent to Deling City with Rinoa?

"This is too complicated," he muttered aloud. He stuffed the photos back in the envelope and shoved it into his bookshelf. The Odine Bangle was still in his pocket. He took it out and stared at it for a long time, thinking.


	12. Eyes

_**Alternate World: A Decision Planted**_

"_I don't want the future,"_ Rinoa had said to him. _"I just want to stay here with you."_

The scene slowly faded from her mind's eye, bringing her face to face with Squall once more.

Her eyes strayed to the glittering brown Bangle still on Rinoa's wrist.

"That's an Odine Bangle, isn't it?" she asked. "Be careful with that from now on. Did you find out why Rinoa fell into a coma?"

He nodded. "I think so… Fujin and Raijin told me."

_Fujin…. Raijin…._

She lost sight of Squall again, and Seifer took his place.

"_Make sure Fujin and Raijin know that I'm okay," _he had said.

_He really depends on them, doesn't he? _She thought to herself.

"He's all right," she murmured quietly.

Squall looked slightly taken aback. "Who is?"

"Tell them—Fujin and Raijin—tell them that Seifer's all right. Will you do that for me?"

He was trying to stall for time; he didn't want to stop talking. But her face was resolute: that was enough for now.

"Okay," he agreed finally. "I will."

Somehow, she knew. Squall and Seifer—they were both becoming dependent on Time Compression, the place she had helped to create. It was inconceivable why the very thing that could have ended all their lives had now become an addiction to them. Now that they all knew, including her, what it was like, they saw its merits and attractions and believed that it was necessary to utilize it.

It was all in their heads. She knew that much. Time Compression was only a memory now, a memory shared by only a handful of people. But the power of that memory was frightening to her. If she had not manipulated them into staying away, then they might not be able to survive if they chose to come back…. That was a risk she wasn't willing to let them take.

* * *

When the moment of action always came, he would flinch for just one second, and when it was over, he would have already pulled the trigger. He was detached from the goings-on, as if her were merely watching a movie. He wasn't the one pulling the trigger. He was just a spectator.

Coming to, there was blood spurting out of his target's head. It was over already.

But why was she still standing? Why was she still moving?

Very, very slowly, she turned to face him, gazing up into his hiding place. Their eyes met.

Her irises were yellow, their pupils catlike slits. Like Edea's on the night of her parade.

_Is that her? Is that Ultimecia?_

"Irvine," someone said. "Irvine, are you awake?"

He opened his eyes slowly. When he saw who was leaning down and talking to him, he struggled to sit up.

"No no no, stay put," Henrietta ordered. "You don't want to mess up your shoulder."

"My shoulder?" He checked his left shoulder, then his right one, and his right shoulder immediately exploded with intense pain.

Henrietta added hesitantly, "You, um… you fell on it."

"… What?"

"The field doctor said that you—you fell from your post and you didn't do anything to lessen your fall—"

"How could I? I didn't even know that I was falling!"

"—Your gun hit the ground first, and the butt of your gun was still against your shoulder, so…" she trailed off. "All the bones are broken and there's a lot of muscle damage and everything."

He sighed heavily and laid his head back down. "Well, thanks for letting me know," he muttered dismissively. "I didn't know you worked in the infirmary now."

She clicked her tongue. "I don't."

He stared. "So why are you the one telling me this? Don't you have anything else to worry about?"

At this, Henrietta vaulted herself from her chair and crossed her arms over her chest. She kept her back to him.

"Is it really true that you're transferring? To Balamb?"

"Mm-hmm…." His eyes narrowed. He wished she would turn around so he could see what was on her mind.

Henrietta reached up and drew the curtain shut, then returned to her seat. Leaning in conspiratorially, she whispered, "Shizuka got your permission to transfer _revoked._"

"_What_? That—" he snarled, feeling absolutely absurd at having his movement restricted by the heavy bandaging around his shoulder.

Henrietta grabbed his shirt by the lapels. "Keep it down!" she snapped.

Irvine gazed up at the ceiling. "Is there a good reason for this?"

She sighed. "Well, we've already lost a lot of students as it is, so you really can't blame her."

"O—Okay, that… makes sense," he murmured, indicating for her to continue.

"And…" she cleared her throat. "Well, you probably know that the Galbadian Army's had its eye on you for several years now. You haven't even applied to take a SeeD test yet, but you're so good already that there's no need for them to wait if they really need you… one of these days."

He nodded pensively, mulling these words over. This much was true: he had always been waiting, waiting with apprehension for the day he would be summoned to Headmaster Martine's office for that very reason. That was the ultimate test; when that happened, how would he react?

Was that it? Was that the reason why someone from the Student Committee itself had been sent to see him? Was he to be drafted right then and there, before he had even recovered from his injuries?

"… But it's highly unlikely that will happen," she assured him. "We—Galbadia Garden—are going to see what we can do to get the Galbadian Army to downsize, and we're going to try to get the other Gardens to back us. If they're forced to cut down, then they probably won't be able to recruit you."

He sighed again, in frustration this time. "That still doesn't tell me why Shizuka's trying to hang on to me. I mean, there's gotta be more to it than that."

She groaned, wishing she didn't have to be the bearer of bad news, no doubt.

"As I said, we're short on people. That means we're short on money, too, and the other two Gardens are in no shape to be handing out loans." She turned to look him squarely in the face. "I think it's safe to conclude that this Garden stands to gain by hanging on to you. You're an investment. A bargaining chip."

He gazed back unblinkingly at her. "You told me all of this. I take it you weren't supposed to."

"That's right."

"Does this mean I can trust you?"

Henrietta smiled to herself. No matter how easygoing he could be, she knew that Irvine was no fool.

"I'll leave that up to you to decide," she declared with a tone of finality in her voice.

Irvine suddenly realized something, a very important detail that he had forgotten to ask.

"The election," he murmured. "Is it all over? So like, who won?"

* * *

Cid glanced up from his desk at the sound of the knocking. "Come in," he called out.

Nida opened the door to Cid's office, closed the door behind him, and fell into a sharp salute.

"Just get to the point," Cid muttered. "I think we could all get to bed sooner if we wrap this up quickly. Oh oh oh wait," he added hastily. "Where's Xu?"

"I… I sent her off, sir," Nida replied.

Cid leaned back in his chair and asked with genuine interest, "Why did you do that?"

Nida glanced to the side, unsure of whether to meet his gaze. "There was a clear winner, sir, but…."

Cid heaved a reluctant sigh. "Have a seat, Nida," he said, once more in a mutter. He waved a hand in the direction of a pair of chairs facing his desk.

As he sat, Nida asked himself, _Am I doing the right thing here? Was I right to take this up to the Headmaster by myself?_

"Now," Cid began, interlacing his fingers in front of him. "Whoever won,_won_! Even if you aren't happy with the outcome, we as a Garden make the decision. So." He stared straight into Nida's eyes. "I'll ask you just this once: Did you tamper with the results after you sent Xu away?"

Nida stared calmly back. "No, sir."

Cid inhaled deeply and closed his eyes. "… Okay," he murmured at last, struggling to grasp the situation. "Could you explain _why_ you took it upon yourself to report to me?"

He took a deep breath. "The winner is General Caraway. Of the Galbadian Army. I sent Xu away because I was… concerned about this reaching Rinoa too soon."

Cid continued to watch Nida closely through several upward scrutinizing glances, observing his composure, somehow trying to reach into his mind and figure out exactly what he was thinking.

"You know that if Xu also knew of the results, she would be forbidden to reveal them to anyone but me." Cid's voice remained even and calm, as did his gaze. In fact, he didn't seem ruffled by Nida's findings at all, and this only added to Nida's frustrations. Couldn't he see what was coming?

"Rinoa just received Adel's powers, and Edea's, _and_ Ultimecia's," Cid continued, maintaining the same cool demeanor. "Naturally, the leaders of every country on this planet are going to want to keep an eye on her…" he nodded very slightly, "and where all of that power's going to go. Having Rinoa's father as one of those leaders will probably result in a conflict of interest, but… we'll deal with that later. We can only solve one problem at a time here.

"For now, though, I'll just say that while I… appreciate your concern over our dealings with Galbadia…." Unexpectedly, he broke into a wide grin. "Just relax a little! Trust your friends a little bit more; their judgment is just as good as yours."

Cid stood from his chair, signifying the end of the conversation.

"I know that Xu can keep a secret, sir, it's not that," Nida explained. "There are just a lot of rumors flying around lately and—it wouldn't be good to let things travel too far from the Garden…."

Cid nodded. "Yes, yes, your intentions were good. Nobody got hurt. Don't worry about it. You're dismissed."

Nida saluted and turned for the door.

* * *

Edea was sitting quietly on one of the couches in the flat she shared with Cid, relaxing in the stillness of nighttime. She was finding it hard to sleep these days; the party was over and there were a lot of affairs to consider in moving forward.

Someone began knocking at the door.

"Who is it?" Edea called out, rising to her feet.

"… It's Rinoa," the muffled voice replied.

Edea crossed the room swiftly and opened the door. Peering through the crack between door and door frame, she could tell that something was definitely distressing the person on the other side. Rinoa did not seem to have been crying, but there was still something subduing her otherwise upbeat nature.

She sat Rinoa down on the couch facing hers. "What is it?" she asked gently. "What's on your mind?"

Rinoa's eyes wandered around the flat. It was tastefully decorated with the bare minimum of furniture. Then slowly, slowly, she turned her attention back to Edea, who was waiting patiently where she sat.

"When you met Squall at the orphanage twelve years ago—the Squall from the future…" she began.

Edea sat up a little straighter in her seat. "Yes?"

"How did you feel about it?"

Edea paused for, what seemed to Rinoa, a very long time. How could this have happened? Rinoa had come to her for advice, probably because she was trying to cope with a similar situation herself.

Finally, Edea spoke. "Does this have anything to do with what happened in Deling City?"

Rinoa nodded.

"All right then," Edea accepted. "That's all I need to know."

Rinoa continued to watch her intently, trying to determine her answer before she spoke it aloud. Rinoa was confused; it seemed that she did not even know how to react to whatever she had seen or heard, and now she was looking to Edea for some clue of what to do or how to feel. She was utterly, completely helpless… but that was only natural. Perhaps Edea was the only one who fully understood that.

"So," Edea began with much deliberation, "after the older Squall had left, I… I was terrified," she admitted. "But I couldn't show it, because I still had Squall with me—the younger Squall. I had to be strong for him, or he'd sense it."

At this, Edea leaned forward to get closer in.

"I would definitely recommend that you confide in someone, though—someone you can trust—"

"No," Rinoa blurted out, her face pale. "I—It didn't happen to me, _I_was the one who was confided in."

Edea frowned. "All right. That's fine, too. It makes sense to want to keep it to yourself," she admitted, but she smiled wearily at this. "But don't try to handle it all by yourself. Find someone to talk to. You can come to me any time if ever you need to, if you don't feel that you can tell your friends."

"… Okay." Rinoa nodded. "Well," she sighed as she stood up, "thank you for your advice."

"Wait wait wait," Edea burst out, suddenly remembering something. "Could I… keep you here just a little longer?"

Rinoa glanced about shiftily. _Is she trying to stall me, or is this really just something she wants to add? _She found her seat again watched Edea expectantly.

"You've only had sorceress power for a short time," Edea affirmed. "I know you may not want to, but just start thinking about what you may have to deal with… sometime in the future."

There was another knock at the door.

"I'll leave that to you to think about," Edea finished politely before standing up. She smiled reassuringly at Rinoa and took her leave to answer the door.

...

The heavy oak doors to the Headmaster's office flung open, and Nida emerged on his way to the elevator. While Nida's back was turned, he slipped through the doors and quickly closed them.

The abrupt bang of the doors slamming shut caused Nida to jerk his head in their direction. He stood and stared for a few moments, then shook his head and continued on his way.

A few minutes later, Cid closed his office for the night. While he was locking the side door, however, he noticed a face reflecting off the door's window. He heaved yet another sigh and calmly turned around.

"Come. We'd better talk," Cid told his visitor, who nodded curtly and joined Cid at the doors.

...

Rinoa remained seated as Edea opened the door, looking around the living room once more. The entire room seemed to feel a lot bigger when she spent time taking in every detail she could.

There was hushed whispering coming from the doorway. She assumed it was Edea doing the whispering. Still, she was beginning to grow curious. Why didn't Edea just invite them in since her conversation with Edea was done?

And then murmuring, clipped and brisk. The seconds dragged on, but Edea remained at the door in hurried, hushed conversation. What was she, Rinoa, supposed to do? She glanced in Edea's direction; whoever Edea was talking to was standing in the shadows.

"Oh, for heaven's sake," Edea muttered audibly, and she reached out, pulled Cid inside by his sleeve, and gave Seifer a hard shove in the back, propelling him straight through the doorway and into the room.

_**Alternate World: Beyond the Barrier**_

They stared at each other for what seemed like hours. Rinoa very slowly rose to her feet, continuing to stare: he noticed that once she was standing, she had moved a few inches farther from where he stood. Her eyes were full to the brim with words and ideas, more of them than he could name. "Rinoa—"

His voice startled her like a gunshot. As if obeying the signal to begin the race, she fled.

She had never been in Cid and Edea's flat before tonight—certainly not this far inside—but she would not go through the door to the outside. Going deeper inside the flat would trap her eventually, but this was better, infinitely better, than having to pass him by on her way out. She would not go near him.

She stumbled across the bathroom and locked herself inside. His footsteps came closer,closer.

And then he was there, his shoes blocking the light spilling out under the door. If she concentrated hard enough, she could literally sense his presence there on the other side.

"Rinoa," he said again. "You don't have to say anything; you don't need to talk to me. I just want you to listen."

She was clutching her head in her arms, with her elbows resting on her knees. It was useless to try asking him to leave because she knew that he would not. Try as she might, she could not block him out.

"No," she let out, not lifting her head from the clutches of her arms. "Look, I know it wasn't all your fault. That's it. There's nothing more to say." Her fingers curled tightly around her locks of hair.

"No,_listen_!" he hissed, more urgently this time. "That's not enough for just you to know. If anyone asks you, you tell them it was my fault, okay?"

She raised her head slowly. It hurt to be around him, but there was something else conflicting with that now. He wasn't here to make her sad: there was something else he was here to say. All of a sudden, she _wanted_ to get close. Should she open the door?

"But it wasn't. That wasn't you; Ultimecia—"

"_Think_, Rinoa! Think about what's going to happen if you try defending me. You're a sorceress; Ultimecia's a sorceress. You don't want to go there."

"Seifer…" she said, "why are you doing this?"

"It was my fault," he said again. "You remember that."

He was right there: just behind the door, and just beyond her reach. Even if she opened the door, she would get no closer. Just this. This was enough. If she touched the door with her hand, she could feel his presence there.

"But Ultimecia made you—made you _do_ things to people, didn't she?" she asked, her voice growing desperate. "Please, just tell me it was her. It had to be. I won't tell anybody the truth if you don't want me to, but I have to know. I have to hear it from you." She sniffed. "Was it her?"

He paused. "It's not enough to blame her… because nobody even knows who she is. You think other people are going to accept something that vague?"

"But you would know," Rinoa said quietly. "_You_ would know who she is."

On the other side, he hung his head. He closed his eyes and tried to imagine what Rinoa was doing right now, what the expression on her face was like. Was she looking in the direction of the door, as if trying to see beyond it?

"Why are you doing this?" she asked again, this time in a whisper.

There were many things he wanted to say, but he didn't want to say too much. So all he said was:

"Don't feel too guilty about it. I'm not just doing this for you."

He could see her clearly now, in his mind's eye. She was standing up as he was turning away from the door, as he broke the connection. She was pressing her ear up against the door to catch the sound of his footsteps dying away. And soon, he could no longer imagine what she was doing at all.


	13. Falling

The doors to the infirmary slid open, and Edea led Rinoa inside.

Dr. Kadowaki leapt out of her chair.

"Where have you been?" she spat at Rinoa. "Do you realize what _time_ it is?—Oh," she muttered, suddenly noticing Edea. "Was she with you?"

"Yes, we were just having a little talk," Edea confirmed. "Try not to be too hard on her: she's had a long day," she added in an undertone.

Dr. Kadowaki's expression changed at this: she nodded pensively; she tapped her fingers on the back of her chair as she thought.

"All right," she said at last, "I suppose you're free to go, Rinoa, but that doesn't mean you won't end up back in here if you don't take good care of yourself."

Rinoa managed a faint smile, then turned and left the room.

"What happened?" Dr. Kadowaki asked at once.

Edea sighed. "Seifer came back."

Her expression softened with concern. "H-How is he? Did you have a chance to talk to him at all?"

"No. He's… with Cid right now. I imagine they're discussing something important."

Dr. Kadowaki decided not to press the matter. "I always knew he'd come back, at least just one more time," she mused. She craned her neck until she could see Selphie, who was sound asleep despite her troubling initial diagnosis.

…

In the morning, she popped into the back room to check up on Selphie.

Selphie's breathing was quiet and slow—hardly noticeable, in fact.

"Selphie?"

She didn't wake up.

* * *

She awoke to a ringing phone.

"Hello?"

"_Is this Fujin?"_ It was Dr. Kadowaki's voice.

"Yes, this is she," Fujin replied in a normal tone of voice. However, she sensed that this call was not quite like the others.

"_Could you please meet me in the Headmaster's office on the third floor in… 20 minutes? I'm going ahead; don't leave your dorm room until 10 minutes from now."_

"… Yes, ma'am. I'll be there."

* * *

"… So what's up?" Seifer asked at last.

Raijin glanced sideways at him. "You remember what I told you the last time I saw you, right?"

He nodded. Raijin turned his back to Seifer and gazed up into the distance.

"We agreed to… give you some space for a while, ya know?" Raijin said. "But then she went back for you anyway, and she's been out of it ever since."

"Why? Did something happen?"

"Of _course_ something happened!" he snapped. He whirled around to face Seifer again. "You wouldn't come back with her, would you?"

Seifer rested his elbows on the railing. "So she was getting worried about me."

Raijin gave a little huff of frustration. "I mean, usually, she isn't this emotionally unstable, but…." He shrugged. "I don't know. I don't understand it."

"… So you _do _think it was me."

"Maybe. I don't know what happened back there, when you two were alone."

Seifer thought about the chill wind lightly swirling around them, so faintly that it was hardly there; how a lone snowflake had landed in her hair, how he had picked it out. How their hands had touched when she had brushed his away.

"… I guess I might have done some things," he admitted, "to give her the wrong idea."

Raijin had been watching him very intently, watching the expressions flash across his face.

"So does that mean you don't—"

"No. I don't."

As soon as he said it, he thought of Rinoa: what he had said to her, how he understood that there had been much more than just a door between them. How did knowing that make him feel?

"I don't know," he conceded after some moments. "It's complicated.

Raijin chuckled a little, shaking his head knowingly. "It's actually simpler than you think, once you take me out of the picture."

Seifer gave him a look that told him to stop.

"Don't say it that way, 'cause it's not true."

Raijin gave a tiny smile. "None of this can last forever, ya know. When all of this is over, it'll make sense to you."

Seifer sighed restlessly.

"We can't stay here much longer," he said abruptly.

"I agree," Raijin murmured. He gripped the railing tightly. "Too many memories for you, huh? And Fujin…." He shook his head wearily. "We have to get her out of here while we still can."

"We can't go now," Seifer insisted sharply. "There's a conference coming up in less than a week, and we all have to be there."

An uneasy silence hung between them.

"You know what?" Raijin said at last. "We should talk to Fujin before we make any more decisions." He turned to leave, but stopped halfway to the door.

"By the way," he added, "if there really _was _nothing there… then why would you have been leading her on?"

* * *

Fujin let the heavy oak doors swing shut behind her. There was nobody waiting to greet her.

Her eyes swiveled to the left; she could hear several muffled voices coming from the side office. Although the blinds were down on all the windows, she could distinguish Dr. Kadowaki's voice speaking loudly above the others.

The door to the side office suddenly swung open, and Dr. Kadowaki poked her head outside it.

"Oh, you're here," she said to Fujin. "You'd better come in." Her voice sounded strained.

Cid and Edea were waiting for her inside. She pulled up a chair and sat stiffly in it, feeling apprehensive of the whole situation. Cid gazed at her over the top of his desk with a very grave expression on his face.

"Fujin," he began, "less than an hour ago this morning, Dr. Kadowaki found Selphie to be… comatose in her infirmary bed."

She continued to sit baldly in her chair. Inside, her mind was racing, trying to get a step ahead.

"Would you happen to know why?" he asked, trying to sound matter-of-fact.

_Why would _I _know? Nobody knows what's going on anymore. Nothing adds up and nothing makes sense._

"No," she replied simply.

Edea glanced over at Cid out of the corners of her eyes.

"You weren't around when this happened," Edea explained, "but after Rinoa received her sorceress powers, she also fell into a coma."

Fujin could feel the combined weight of their gazes pressing down upon her. She did not like the feeling.

"Where are we going with this?"

Cid leaned back a little more into his chair; it squeaked. Dr. Kadowaki cleared her throat.

"We need more information to get to the bottom of this. We need to know more about the people you and the others came in contact with. You're the only one who witnessed everything that happened in Selphie's presence, and I'm guessing you know more than what you've told us previously."

"Selphie can't be a sorceress," Fujin insisted. "Where could she have possibly gotten any powers from?"

As soon as she said it, however, a frightening thought crossed her mind: _Rinoa_.

Was it possible? Rinoa was in the closet, and neither intruder had even glanced in the direction of that closet… but that alone proved nothing. Something was still missing, some vital piece of information that she, Fujin, knew nothing about.

"Will you work with us, Fujin?" Dr. Kadowaki asked. "Do you have any ideas?"

_But it doesn't make sense_, Fujin thought. _Why did it take Selphie so long to fall into that coma? Apparently, Rinoa fell into a coma right away, so what slowed the process down? Maybe we're relying too much on what happened in the past to try to figure this out. This could be something completely new we're dealing with._

Dr. Kadowaki pulled up the other chair and sat across the room, angled to face Fujin.

"That boy with blond hair," she mentioned, abruptly changing the subject. "Who is he?"

_Wait. "We"? How do I know I can still trust them? How do I know they're not looking out for Selphie's interests rather than mine?_ Fujin remained stony-faced.

"I don't know."

"Okay. Then why are you protecting him? Why are you putting yourself through so much trouble for someone you don't even know?"

Fujin looked away, in the direction of the door.

"I don't have any answers for you, Doctor," she admitted quietly. "I've told you everything I know."

Her eyes lingered on the door for a few more moments, then she turned back to give her full attention. Dr. Kadowaki had her hand over her forehead.

"I just made a phone call and sent an e-mail," Cid informed her. "We're transferring Selphie to Galbadia Garden's infirmary after the conference if her condition doesn't improve." He sighed and pursed his lips. "It must be done. Dr. Kadowaki needs to rest, and Irvine's needed in Galbadia; he's the only one they've got. I'm sure he wouldn't mind being a little closer to her."

"What if she wakes up and she doesn't want to be in Galbadia? You're making decisions for her without asking her?"

He sighed again. "It must be done," he stressed once more. "If and when she wakes up, she can decide for herself. We'd be more than happy to have her back."

Dr. Kadowaki cut in: "Fujin. _Please_." Her brow furrowed as she implored her. "Who is he? Do you know for sure that he has something to do with what's happening with Selphie?"

"I already said that I don't know anything else," she replied quite calmly.

Dr. Kadowaki lay her hand over her forehead again. "You make it hard for me to be upset with you," she sniffed, "no matter how much you lie." She laughed a little to herself. "He must be worth more to you than the rest of us put together if you won't sell him out, even if it could help Selphie."

"But would _you_ sell _me_ out?" she asked quietly.

"I'm sorry?"

Fujin's eyes narrowed. "Would you sell me out for her?"

Dr. Kadowaki sniffed again. "Of course not. I could never do it."

…

Who—or what—connected the two incidents? It made sense to feel curious, to desire an answer, but she had to admit how frustrating it was to grope for clues in the dark, and that she understood exactly how her superiors felt.

Fujin sat down on the chair next to Selphie's bed. She tentatively reached out her hand and touched Selphie's; she was cold to the touch, not quite dead, but not quite alive.

At the moment their hands made contact, she felt that same cold thrill course through her entire body, as if some of the cold had been passed on to her—or as if some of her heat had been passed on to Selphie.

"What's happening to you?" she asked aloud without understanding why she did. She had addressed the comatose Selphie directly; there was no response, as expected. Nevertheless, she kept talking:

"Can you hear me?"

Selphie's eyelids quivered for an instant and were still.

Braving the sensation, she touched Selphie's hand again, then held onto it and didn't let go. The cold swept through her, pulsed through her like a current; the current originated at their entwined hands and split, one making Fujin colder, the other making Selphie warmer. Somehow knowing that it was the right thing to do, she closed her eyes.

With her abilities unimpeded by what she could see, she finally felt it: energy coursed through Selphie's body, literally spreading throughout. Most of the energy was concentrated in Selphie's torso. Disconnected, blurry images came to Fujin: a boy with light blond hair opening a door before the observer, a girl with long black hair staring straight through her, her eyes a blur of yellow… the boy's voice formed sounds, not words, just sounds: she couldn't understand what he was saying, but she wasn't even sure whether he had spoken at all—

There was comfort in the strange current that flowed through Selphie's brain: it felt familiar somehow, like someone she had desperately missed, but was now finally, finally reunited with—

Her eyes snapped open. She sprang to her feet and let Selphie's hand fall from hers and dangle helplessly over the edge of the bed. Thankful that the infirmary was still deserted, she left in a hurry, without another word. She could feel it all rushing up to meet her: the things that must happen, the things she could not stop from happening.

Was there a way to stop it? A way to somehow postpone the inevitable and in the process, stop the inevitable from being so? Was such a thing worth wishing for, or would that only make her more miserable?

_Raijin…._

* * *

She awoke to the sound of a door sliding shut. She gasped and struggled to sit up.

Her head hurt. Her head… her chest hurt, too… she felt mixed up inside, confused, there was no making sense of the little bursts of memories—were they memories at all?—that flashed in her mind's eye.

"D—Doctor? Doctor Kadowaki?" she called out. No one answered. She took a deep breath and found that this helped with the pain.

"I'll get through this," she assured herself aloud. "I know I can."

* * *

Wind rushed in at them from every direction.

_Am I… still alive?_

Slowly, carefully, she opened her eyes.

She was falling, falling deeper and deeper into the nothingness, spiraling around and down as the wind tossed her. About a yard away from her, Kaze, too, was falling.

She shouted at him through the wind: "I saw what you did to her."

Gradually, their descent slowed; they floated down to rest on a flat and barren desert.

He avoided looking into her eyes. Those eyes were becoming more and more like their enemy's; what was he hoping to accomplish by running, and taking her with him? That was the one thing he hated most about Time: it didn't give him any other choices. His decision was the right one. It was time to give up.

"We are about to die," he uttered resolutely. "I'm in the process of putting my affairs in order."

"This isn't the same!" she insisted furiously. "What did you think that was? Willing your possessions off to people who can barely keep them contained?"

He sighed in frustration. "It was a gamble," he admitted. "But I know she'll be able to handle it."

At this point, he felt he could no longer avoid looking her in the eye; he gazed at her with the same intensity she returned.

"If I know something, then I'm going to use it," he said defiantly. "We're from their future: we can't help what we know, so we'd might as well use what we know. We wouldn't have gotten this far if we hadn't."

She nodded in resignation.

"I don't think anyone else will be able to find it," he continued. "Selphie will keep it safe."

She nodded again, this time tucking a lock of hair behind her ear.

"She'll get through it," she assured him. "I know she can."


	14. The Secret in Flight

In the bowels of the White SeeD ship, Ellone slept, not feeling, not thinking, not dreaming. Squall gazed into her sleeping face; he felt helpless, responsible somehow, although he knew that was ridiculous….

"Ellone chose to live in zis state," Dr. Odine explained. "She simply needed rest."

"Squall, I'm sure she'll wake up," Selphie murmured. She patted him on the arm. "She'll come back for you, and for us, too."

Squall nodded absentmindedly.

"It would be better—safer—if she stayed here on this ship," Dr. Kadowaki advised.

"I agree." Dr. Odine shuffled away from Ellone's bedside. "So," and he clapped his hands together, "vat iz ze matter I have been summoned here for?"

Dr. Kadowaki introduced Selphie to him.

"There was an incident during her last mission," she began, "and she's been displaying various signs of—illness ever since."

Selphie stood alone, feeling quite embarrassed, as Dr. Odine looked her over.

Squall took a step toward the door, sensing that his presence was not helping her.

"I probably should go—"

"No, I want you around for this," Dr. Kadowaki insisted. She turned to Selphie and asked, "Selphie, is that all right if he stays?"

Selphie nodded dully. Squall averted his eyes to avoid seeing her face.

"Please describe her symptoms, Doctor Kadowaki."

Selphie pretended not to hear:

"M-Memory loss. Confined only to one very specific time period, as far as we know."

Dr. Odine frowned as he thought.

"Vere zere not… reports of Guardian Forces causing progressive retrograde amnesia?"

"Yes, we have proof that many of our SeeDs and students have suffered amnesia because of GFs, but not in the way Selphie here has experienced."

"'Confined only to vun very specific time period,'" he murmured, thinking ever deeper. "Still, zere iz a simple vay to test it…."

Dr. Odine turned to Squall.

"Do you have a GF Junctioned?"

"… Yes," Squall admitted reluctantly; he had hoped that he would not be dragged into the discussion.

"See if you can Draw any GFs out of her brain," Dr. Odine ordered.

Squall searched long and hard through the packets of energy cluttering Selphie's mind, until he found something: a pulsating, bright white light. He attempted to Draw it out several times, but failed.

"There's definitely something in there," he confirmed, "but it won't come out.

"Do you know vat it iz?" Dr. Odine breathed eagerly; he seemed positively star-struck.

Selphie stared back at Squall; her eyes were wide with apprehension.

He spoke more quietly this time: "… I'm pretty sure it's a GF."

Dr. Kadowaki, Squall, and Selphie all exchanged darkly meaningful looks. Selphie's face was ashen.

"Vell, if it cannot be removed from inside your brain, zen ve have a problem," Dr. Odine muttered. "I discovered GFs, I have seen ze abilities harnessed by zose who Junction zem, but zis iz something I have never seen before."

It seemed that Dr. Odine also had a GF Junctioned: either that or he was now so skilled at dealing with magical matters that he could determine a GF's presence using his own unaided ability. He was now staring intently at Selphie's forehead.

"Zat iz a very special GF inside your brain," he declared. "Perhaps you should try to Junction it yourself."

"No," she insisted, her voice hollow. She felt dirty, tainted with some foreign substance that was infecting her mind. Her stomach plunged as she thought: _Is this what it feels like? Did Rinoa have to go through this, too?_

"If you could Junction zis GF and become compatible viz it, you may be able to remove it yourself," Dr. Odine suggested.

"Selphie, it's just for a moment," Dr. Kadowaki pleaded. "Just to see if it's possible."

She hated herself for obeying, for soiling herself further, it seemed, but nothing came of her efforts. She tried to manipulate the pulsing light into some sort of recognizable form, but it remained as it was; she tried picking up some sense of what it was like—its personality, so to speak—but everything about it was indecipherable. It sat like a dead weight inside her head, seemingly doing nothing but taking up space.

"I can't do it."

Dr. Odine began to pace around the room.

"It seems zat only a very poverful sorceress could have modified zis GF to affect your brain in such a specific vay," he concluded as he paced. "It vill probably take an equally poverful sorceress—if not an even more poverful one—to unlock it for your use, or to remove it from your brain, as ze case may be."

He stopped walking as an idea struck him.

"Ah! Perhaps your Rinoa iz capable of ze task?"

"No," he said at once to answer his own question. "I remember her… she vas too inexperienced, much too inexperienced…."

His peripatetic mumbling dissolved into nonsense to their ears, but he soon looked up, frowning in slight displeasure.

"Zere iz something wrong viz zis scenario," he muttered. "Rinoa is ze sorceress now. Who else could have given her zis GF?"

The question had been more a question for himself than for the others; still, Squall felt that Dr. Odine already knew the answer, but was asking anyway.

"The people who attacked her were from a future time period," Dr. Kadowaki supplied.

"Ah, yes! My Junction Machine Ellone!" His eyes twinkled in excitement. "But—ve must not get ahead of ourselves." His tone of voice grew serious. "You seem to have natural ability viz magic, yet you are no sorceress. Ze GF inside you iz very poverful and much too difficult for a normal human girl such as yourself to harness for your purposes. Likewise, it iz too difficult for it to be taken from you like any uzzer vorldly possession.

"But—But—you must keep ze GF contained. You must keep it _controlled_, or else it vill destroy you like a parasite encroaching on ze rest of your memories. Meanvile… try and see if Rinoa can gain enough control over her povers to help you. It vill take some time, but it iz your only option."

* * *

He was the very first one in the lecture hall. With no one to talk to and nothing much to do, he chose a seat in one of the middle rows and sat down. As instructed, he had showed up in his Galbadia Garden cadet uniform. His right arm was in a sling.

He wished someone would show up soon. He had had over a week of having no one to talk to; he was tired of thinking the same thoughts over and over.

Just as he had been hoping, the doors swung open. He turned his head to see Selphie step inside. She, too, wore her cadet uniform, with a yellow scarf signifying Balamb Garden.

"Selphie," he murmured in surprise. He stood up.

She smiled and waved, then hurried down over to him.

"Hey," she piped up simply. Despite her attempts to seem cheerful as usual, he could tell that something was bothering her. Although nobody seemed to give him much credit for it, he did have an eye for noticing those sorts of things.

"It's… It's good to see you," he replied; he tried to smile back, but it didn't end up quite right, because she was frowning.

"What?" she asked. She wasn't smiling.

"Well… you don't look so good. Is something wrong?"

She exhaled in a huff and crossed her arms over her chest. Her eyes wandered to her feet.

"There's something wrong… with _me_," she sniffed outright. "I'm sick."

"Like how?" he demanded.

"It's complicated," she added at once. "Dr. Odine—they had to call him in to diagnose me—he said only Rinoa can cure me, because she's a sorceress and she's the only one with enough ability to do it… but she doesn't have enough experience with her powers yet. So right now, I'm just," and she shrugged half-heartedly, "waiting."

Irvine nodded absentmindedly. How was he supposed to feel? How did she expect him to react? Complicated… so complicated. They were stuck, stuck in that fuzzy middle ground between mere infatuation and something deeper, and this insecurity of where the other stood permeated each action they took together, each furtive glance and half-developed thought.

"How bad is it?" He felt strangely childish asking such a question, but he wanted to know.

Selphie literally seemed to be wilting where she stood. Instead of answering, she just bobbed her head up and down, as if mulling something over. He noticed, too, that there were no tears in her eyes.

In what felt like the distant past, he would have known just what to do to cheer her up. This, however, was no laughing matter; this wasn't something they could wish away like the others. Serious was hard. Serious was real. You can't hide behind a smile; you can only be honest.

"So, are you coming to Balamb for good now, or are you still staying here?" she finally asked.

"… Now that I think about it, they might have kept me here because they thought you were coming, too. But… now you're awake, so it's your call."

She made her way to a seat in the row in front of his and plopped down into it.

"So you heard about all of that," she murmured. She had her back to him; she was staring down at her knees as she talked. "I… I think I should stay. I should stay in Balamb."

He sat down in his seat again and leaned forward to prop his left arm over the back of the seat in front; Selphie was in the seat directly to the right of the seat in front of his.

"It would be nice," she continued, "to hang out with you a bit more often, but I have to get better, and Rinoa's in Balamb, so I should stay close to her, you know?"

He nodded again, then rested his chin on his arm.

"It'll work out somehow," he assured her. "You just go and worry about getting better, okay?"

He pulled out a pen and a scrap piece of paper from his pocket, carefully wrote something on it, and passed it to her. She frowned a little as she read it.

"Is this… your e-mail address?"

"Yep. You have to tell me what's going on over there while I'm gone." He narrowed his eyes threateningly. "I want the _scoop_! Got it?"

She grinned slyly.

"You bet."

* * *

They all filed in quietly by twos and threes and took their seats, all clustered in the front half of the lecture hall. A few moments of silence reigned, and then the doors swung open a final time to reveal Dr. Odine and the White SeeD Leader. He carried Ellone in his arms.

A fleeting shadow stole over Laguna's face.

Cid cleared his throat as these last arrivals found seats.

"That seems to be everybody. Let's begin."

At this point, Caraway rose from his seat and took the front of the lecture hall. This time, he wore not his much-decorated military uniform, but a simple black business suit.

"As you all know, I was very recently elected President of Galbadia," he began. He comported himself with both dignity and humility while speaking; he did not act quite as proud as the Caraway Squall and the others had met on the night of the assassination. "The election happened so quickly after the cease-fire because Galbadia is in dire need of political stability. We simply could not afford to be without a government for months on end. Judging from the… incident in Deling City on Election Day, it is obvious that everyone's presence is required here. The groundwork has been laid for an end to be realized, but we still have much work to do."

"As a side note," he murmured, more quietly this time, "I have been getting… rumors. Rumors that my daughter Rinoa was involved, that the intruders may have even appeared in the first place because of her presence in the general area."

Rinoa glanced up at him momentarily, then back down at her feet. He gazed imploringly back at her. Dr. Kadowaki turned to her and said quietly:

"Rinoa… I think it's about time you told him."

…

Caraway paced across the room and back again. His face looked pinched, anxious, pale, but he took no notice of this.

"How could I not have been informed of this until now?" His words left his lips in anguish. "My only daughter, a _sorceress_?"

Rinoa had tears brimming in her eyes. She had not been alone in his presence ever since the assassination attempt on Sorceress Edea. So much had happened… she had no idea what to feel.

"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry," she murmured as her eyes continued to sparkle. "I guess—while I was in a coma, they didn't want to worry you—and when I woke up, things had already started happening, everything started happening all at once—"

He shook his head in disbelief.

"I helped plan Sorceress Edea's assassination," he muttered in a tone of disgust. "I risked my career—and even my life, and the lives of those SeeDs—to bring some stability back to this country… but I couldn't even protect my own daughter from becoming one."

She looked up and into his face, something she had long been unable to do.

"Just being one isn't the problem—"

"Yes it is… Rinoa," he insisted gravely; he fleetingly tried thinking of the last time he had said her name, but couldn't remember. As he often did, he gazed out the window, into the cold night and the ethereal lights of the city. "How else do you think people will react once we all go public tomorrow morning? We'll have to tell them you're a—sorceress, and they won't bother to look any deeper than that, based on everything that's happened with sorceresses in the past."

This time, Rinoa shook her head, and as she did so, some of her tears finally fell to the carpet.

"I won't let that happen. People are better than that."

He gave a small, sad smile and hoped that she was right.

* * *

Dr. Kadowaki was literally on edge. Fujin conceded that she, too, badly needed rest… but then again, this was nothing… she had spent many sleepless nights before….

"So," Dr. Kadowaki huffed. Her voice rang throughout the empty office. "So Selphie… is awake."

Fujin blinked placidly.

"Why?" Dr. Kadowaki demanded.

She gazed blankly back.

"I don't know why."

Dr. Kadowaki rose from her seat and began to pace from the door to the window and back again; her arms were crossed over her chest as she did so. Fujin slowly closed and opened her eyes.

"_How about the sorceresses?" Cid proposed. "Ultimecia and Adel are dead," he supplied, "so…"_

"_Rinoa stood up slowly._

"_So… it's just me." She felt her face grow hot. "I'm the only one left."_

"_Zat iz… debatable," Dr. Odine commented smugly._

"You know, Fujin," Dr. Kadowaki began at last, in a significantly different tone of voice, "back a few days ago, when I first questioned you, that was the first time—the _very first time_—that you… withheld information from me."

Once more, Fujin closed her eyes slowly, then opened them just as slowly.

"Did you go anywhere near this infirmary between then and now?" Dr. Kadowaki demanded of Fujin.

_Dr. Odine surveyed the room: some faces were unreadable, while others seemed confused._

"_Rinoa iz ze only sorceress _ve know ov. _Ve must not forget zat most sorceresses prefer to hide zeir povers." He turned an expectant eye on Rinoa. "I am sure zat if you had had ze choice, you vould prefer to do ze same."_

Fujin hung her head in resignation.

"And if I did?" she asked quietly. Despite her body language, however, her voice remained stoic, even defiant.

Dr. Kadowaki shut her eyes in an attempt to momentarily escape the implications of Fujin's words. She sighed heavily.

"Fujin… what did you do?"

She started shaking her head.

"I didn't know she had awoken at the time. I left right away; I'm almost certain she didn't see me." Lifting her head, she added, "I just wanted to figure out what was wrong, I—felt _responsible_ somehow…."

"_Then you think there are others? Other sorceresses, in hiding somewhere?" Rinoa asked him._

_Dr. Odine nodded; that familiar twinkle in his eye was there for just one instant, and Squall couldn't help but feel that Dr. Odine could very well _know_ of others, know that they were out there somewhere, perhaps even knew where to look and what to look for. Maybe Dr. Odine's question, the simple question that Squall thought was obvious, was a better question than he, Squall, had given the doctor credit for…._

Dr. Kadowaki leaned forward.

"I certainly hope you _do not _need my reminder than you _cannot afford_ to be discovered!" she hissed urgently. "If Selphie remembers something, if she traces it back to you somehow—"

"She won't." Fujin's gaze was steady. "I left it inside her, didn't I?"

"Of course," she muttered darkly, "of course, because her illness is the only thing that is keeping your secret." She crossed her arms and threw a furtive glance to her side. "But if you indeed felt responsible, surely you would have removed it?"

"Stop testing me." Fujin's brows were tight. "I thought about doing it, but what was I supposed to do with it once I did?" Her fingers found their way to her elbows and curled tightly around them. "Where do you _put_—something like that?"

"So you didn't do it. Good."

Dr. Kadowaki turned her head to look Fujin full in the face once more. With Dr. Kadowaki's face in shadow, Fujin could fully appreciate the lines in her face. How many of those had she, Fujin, caused?

"It makes no difference whether you can help her or not. You _have _to stay away from her. That's an order. Whatever it is you want to do, whatever it is you wish you had done, none of that matters. It doesn't have to be you," she explained firmly. "At least we still have Rinoa, and she has already been exposed!"

Fujin gave her a most peculiar stare of incredulity. She stood and made to leave.

"You remember what I said to you before, don't you?" Dr. Kadowaki spoke to Fujin's back. "I won't sell you out. We gave you our word."

Fujin nodded silently.

"Goodbye, Doctor."

Finally regaining her confident composure, she passed through the open doorway and into the night. At a time like this, there was no looking back, only moving forward, no matter what lay ahead.


End file.
